Counselling Children and Young People

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Examine the competencies required to work effectively with children and young people in counselling practice. Draw on current evidence bases, research, and professional guidelines to evaluate your training, and personal and professional development. Establish the extent to which you meet current best practice guidelines and develop an action plan to address any gaps. 

Overview

A key feature of this course is evaluating practice against the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) competency frameworks for working with children and young people and associated good practice guidelines.

Students undertaking the module should have practice experience of counselling children and young people and be in current practice with this client group under appropriate supervision. During the course students will need to accrue a minimum of 50 hours of practice. 

The course will take the form of 2-hour sessions running weekly across two semesters. The first semester will be 25 September 2025 to 11 December 2025. The second semester will be from 8 January 2026 to 26 March 2026. There are 3-week vacation periods in December and March/April.

Why us?

An innovative course for counselling practitioners working with Children and Young people to prepare for professional CYP-specific accreditation
A course that recognises past experience and tailors students’ learning to their development needs.
Tuition from an experienced CYP practitioner

Content that draws from current professional standards
A level 7 qualification that you can use towards further study on the MA Advancing Counselling Practice (Children and Young People) programme or other post-graduate awards. Please note the MA Advancing Counselling Practice course has a number of exit awards that can lead to a PG certificate or PG Diploma

Course structure

Learning outcomes for this course include:

Critically examine and evaluate the extent to which own counselling practice meets professional competency standards for working with children and young people.

Develop an action plan for addressing gaps in professional knowledge.

Demonstrate having completed sufficient practice experience to meet competency standards certified by an appropriately qualified and registered clinical supervisor.

Critically reflect on personal and professional development gained from the module.

Assessment for this course will consist of a reflective portfolio (3000 words), a supervisors statement (to confirm 50 hours of practice has been satisfactorily undertaken) and a reflective Statement (1000 words).

At our City Campus, the University’s facilities for dance and performing arts include:
- A main studio with a state-of-the-art lighting rig, a cyclorama for digital work and portable seating for small public performances
- A second dance studio
- Rehearsal space
- Two dressing rooms
- Cameras and edit suite
We’ve got a large collection of books, e-books and audio-visual materials related to dance, with many more titles available through the inter-library loan service. We also subscribe to a comprehensive range of journals so that you can access the most up-to-date research and information.

During your time as a student, you can take advantage of opportunities to participate in University-based dance and drama societies as well as the choir and musical theatre performance projects.
City Campus
We’ve got thousands of books and e-books on health studies with many more titles available through the inter-library loan service. We also subscribe to a comprehensive range of print and electronic journals so that you can access the most reliable and up-to-date academic and industry articles.

Some of the most important sources for your studies include:
- SocINDEX with full-text articles – probably the world's most comprehensive and highest-quality sociology research database
- Professional Development Collection, which features hundreds of education journals and reports
- Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Database, which includes full-text journal articles on topics spanning emotional and behavioural sciences, psychiatry and psychology
- Lexis Library, which covers UK and international legal information as well as full-text newspaper articles
- Community Care Inform, which helps professionals who work with children and young people to make, and evidence, their decisions
Library Services - psychological research

Facilities

The course will take place on City Campus in Sunderland city centre.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.

To be eligible for this course, you must hold:

2:2 Degree classification in counselling/psychotherapy- this must be a practitioner qualification recognised by British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS), or the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) as meeting the requirements to be eligible for registered membership.

or

A degree in a related subject (e.g. health or care related subject) (2:2) and hold a level 5 qualification in counselling - the level 5 qualification must be a practitioner qualification recognised by BACP, NCPS, or the UKCP as meeting the requirements to be eligible for registered membership.

or

PgDip in Counselling - the PgCert/Dip in Counselling must be a practitioner qualification recognised by BACP, NCPS, or the UKCP as meeting the requirements to be eligible for registered membership.

In addition to meeting one of the above criteria, the student will need to already be working with a CYP client group and be able to evidence the completion of at least 50 hours of experience working with children and young people since completing their initial counselling training

Fees and finance

The fee for this course is £1500.

The employer usually meets these costs – we advise you to speak to your workforce development lead before applying.

We also accept self-funded applicants and encourage anyone wishing to explore their options to contact cpd@sunderland.ac.uk.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Related courses

MA Advancing Counselling Practice

Contact

For more information on studying this course, contact:

Corporate and Professional Education Team
cpd@sunderland.ac.uk

Page last updated: 01 July 2025

We aim to provide clear, accurate and timely information to prospective and current students. We continuously review and enhance course content in consultation with our students and the information provided on our website is the latest available. If you have received an offer from us to start a course, we will communicate any important changes to you in writing. We will always seek to ensure that our prospective students are fully aware of the basis on which they are accepting an offer.