MSc Counselling and Positive Psychology

• You should have an Upper Second Class (2.1) Honours degree (or higher) in Psychology or a relevant area. If you have a Lower Second Class (2:2) Honours degree in Psychology, then you may be accepted on to the programme.
• All suitable applicants will be invited to attend an interview and provide proof of one-to-one basis work experience in a helping role.
• You will also need to provide two satisfactory references (one for academic capacity and one for work/voluntary experience).
• We may also ask you to provide a portfolio of your work, as part of the application process.
• This course does not confer Graduate Basis for Registration (GBR) with the British Psychological Society (BPS) – if you are seeking to achieve GBR please consider applying for our MSc Psychology (Conversion) programme.
• We'll also consider applications where appropriate work experience can be demonstrated in lieu of, or in addition to, the published academic qualifications in line with the University’s Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning (RPEL) procedures.
• If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
• This course involves working unsupervised with children and/or vulnerable young people and adults and you must gain an Enhanced Disclosure certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) before starting your studies. Charges are payable to cover the cost of the DBS Enhanced Disclosure application and annual registration with the online Update Service.
• Please note that this course is subject to the University of Bolton's Fitness to Practise procedure.

Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.

The MSc in Counselling and Positive Psychology focuses on the core counselling skills, counselling theories, and applications of positive psychology and psychotherapy in practice. It looks at the impact of counselling and psychotherapy on a person’s wellbeing and what makes people thrive.

The course is designed to develop your employability skills, including intellectual and thinking skills, problem solving, interpersonal awareness, communication skills, your ability to develop arguments supported by relevant evidence, and team work, IT and data handling skills.

What can I do with this qualification?

A Master’s in Counselling and Positive Psychology can be used in a wide variety of job roles within practice, education and training, business, healthcare, charities and government agencies. As a graduate, you could even use helping skills and positive psychology techniques to work in business organisations.

If you’re aiming to become an assistant psychologist, clinical psychologist, counsellor, counselling psychologist, life skills coach, wellbeing practitioner, or psychotherapist, the theory and transferable skills offered by this course should also benefit your clinical work. Teachers, youth workers and educators can also use counselling and positive psychology expertise in their work.

Some graduates may choose to continue their education to doctorate level. Continuing your education would give you the opportunity to develop your skills further and research your area of interest.

Alternative career options

Graduates can use the qualification as a stepping stone to enter a range of other careers, and for some of these roles, both relevant experience and/or postgraduate study may be required. Some of these careers include:

• Teaching and education
• Prison service counsellor
• Probation services
• Family mediation and support
• Child protection
• Social work
• Police
• Youth work
• Communications
• Sport and recreation
• Careers guidance
• Human resources

Home students starting this course in the first year will be required to pay a Home fee of £5,664 for the academic year 2024/25.

Overseas students starting this course in the first year will be required to pay a Overseas fee of £15,950 for the academic year 2024/25.

Useful information

Please note the total course fee for a Home student starting this course in 2023/24 will be £7,920. As this is an 18-month course, the fees are £5,280 for the first year and £2,640 for the final semester.

Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2023-2024 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.

The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.

Bursaries

Click here for more information on our Master's Bursaries.

We use a diverse range of teaching methods, designed to complement each other and help you achieve the course’s intended learning outcomes. We offer lectures, seminars, workshops, group supervision and one-to-one sessions – but you’ll also be expected to undertake significant independent reading and investigation, as well as completing seminar-related work and preparing for workshops, presentations and group discussions. Some modules will require you to follow up taught sessions by using online resources and completing complementary tasks.

Assessment methods are also varied, allowing you to demonstrate your learning in a range of ways. For example, module assessments may require you to complete reports, essays, presentations, deliver counselling sessions, portfolio, literature reviews, or review journal articles, write up case interventions, treatment evaluations, complete short question and present reflective journals.

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

• Therapeutic Counselling
• Research Methods for Counselling and Coaching
• Foundations of Positive Psychology
• Positive Psychology in Practice
• Supervised Counselling Practice 1
• Qualitative Inquiry
• Positive Psychology Dissertation

Assessment methods

Learning activities

Disclaimer

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.