Strathclyde, University of, PgCert, Counselling Skills

This course provides an opportunity for students who have already discovered an interest in counselling or the application of counselling skills to other settings, to take that interest further and enhance their professional interactions; it does not lead to a qualification in counselling but can be a reasonable stepping stone to such an objective; the course brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds: social workers; speech therapists; teachers; health workers; the certificate is validated as a whole course by the Confederation of Scottish Counselling Agencies (the professional body for counselling and psychotherapy in Scotland; the campus-based course spans 120 contact hours: an introductory week in September, daily from 10 am-5 pm; 13 single Mondays distributed between October and April; 1 2-day block in May; the shape of the course may vary slightly from year to year but the 3 main themes are: the personal development of the helper; person-centred theory; and skills development; the course is not lecture-based; there are some presentations of content; the predominant process is experiential.