Oscail Psychology and Counselling?

Filan

Hi Alan here again..nearly a year on... After failing in my application for a Counselling degree I turned to Psychology and Oscail and am now nearing the end of first year Psychology. The question has now arisen however as to whether I should continue and aim for a degree. If I did obtain a degree in Psycholohy with Oscail how could I hope to enter Counselling thereafter?

Hope all are well and thansk for all who take the time to reply
Alan

JuliusCaesar

Yes, definitely continue on. A degree in psychology is of immense benefit when studying counselling - and not just because of some of the guff in counselling courses. You'll find stuff like sociology, developmental psych, comparitive psych all of great use in understanding counselling and clients.

Odysseus

I have to agree with Julius carry on with the degree. In addtion, to the above, a psychology degree will help with your career development. There are many more therapeutic opportunities as a psychologist than a psychotherapist. I'm a psychotherapist my degree and masters being in psychoanalysis, most of my work is based around this method. However, I have found that my friends who trained with me and also have psych quals have better access to better jobs. My general advise over the years when people ask about training as a psychotherapist is get a psych degree, then train as a therapist. Hope this helps, best of luck with it.

Filan

Thanks to both for your replies. So what could a Psychology graduate do other than Counselling? Would specificaly an 'Oscail ' Psychology degree carry weight?
Best wishes
Alan

JuliusCaesar

Occupational psychology, educational psychology, forensic psychology, clinical psychology, child&adolescents, intellectual disability, industry, teaching, research, HR,................see psihq.ie or the BPS website. People with psychology degrees go in for many different careers! The degree is only the first step.

eth0_

Filan wrote:

If I did obtain a degree in Psycholohy with Oscail how could I hope to enter Counselling thereafter?

Plenty of masters degrees in counselling in Ireland and the UK. I think you're better off with a Bsc in psych rather than counselling, if you change your mind about career choice the psych degree would open more doors than something as narrowly focused as a counselling degree.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Friend of mine is doing the Oscail degree (Humanities, but with a major in Psychology), and is, at the same time doing a degree in Bachelor of Science in in Counselling and Psychotherapy in PCI. Both degrees are part-time, so not really a time problem. Not sure if this would be something that would help you. i.e. you can do psychology and psychotherapy/counselling at the same time.

eth0_

Roundtower2 wrote:

Friend of mine is doing the Oscail degree (Humanities, but with a major in Psychology), and is, at the same time doing a degree in Bachelor of Science in in Counselling and Psychotherapy in PCI. Both degrees are part-time, so not really a time problem. Not sure if this would be something that would help you. i.e. you can do psychology and psychotherapy/counselling at the same time.

He's wasting his time I would say. You should still do a masters or PhD in counselling to be able to practice competently.

krankykitty

eth0_ wrote:

He's wasting his time I would say. You should still do a masters or PhD in counselling to be able to practice competently.

Can you substantiate this?

You can get accreditation with the Irish Assoc for Counselling and Psychotherapy by having the Counselling & Psychotherapy degree mentioned plus a certain amount of client hours.

Odysseus

eth0_ wrote:

He's wasting his time I would say. You should still do a masters or PhD in counselling to be able to practice competently.

Could you clarify this its too vague to understand what you are saying, is it that you must have a psychology degree and of course a psychology masters to practice in a competent manner?

Odysseus

Sorry misread your post, whilst I agree the level entry for the HSE as a counsellor is only Diploma level, but I do believe that people should get to at least Masters level.

eth0_

Odysseus wrote:

Sorry misread your post, whilst I agree the level entry for the HSE as a counsellor is only Diploma level, but I do believe that people should get to at least Masters level.

This is what I mean by practicing competently. I wouldn't dream of working with vulnerable people with only a degree behind me. You gain invaluable hands on experience when you do postgraduate counselling courses. Personally I wouldn't be comfortable going to see someone who called themselves a counsellor if they only had an undergrad degree.

krankykitty

That Counselling & Psychotherapy degree in PCI as mentioned by a previous poster does have hands on experience and skills training as part of the undergraduate degree.


I'm not saying that this is better than doing the Counselling Psychology masters - but the OP seems to be investigating a variety of options for himself so just throwing my 2c in.

Odysseus

krankykitty wrote:

That Counselling & Psychotherapy degree in PCI as mentioned by a previous poster does have hands on experience and skills training as part of the undergraduate degree.


I'm not saying that this is better than doing the Counselling Psychology masters - but the OP seems to be investigating a variety of options for himself so just throwing my 2c in.

Just to say from what I have seen from students of that course it seems to be quite a good course, the students I have met at various training days seem to possess a good knowledge to operate from.

chezdee

I will be starting a Msc in counselling with DCU in september and would be interested in hearing from anyone who is doing or has completed this course.

thanks
Chezdee

gerrytm

Hello all.
After years of wandering about in the wilderness I've decided to go back to study and change careers, with a view to do counselling/clinical psychology.I've looked at the options in Oscail, Open University, the ICS which offers a degree from the University of East London and a masters qualifier from London College.(Edit, included a link but can't get it to work....ah here it is www.lcuck.ac.uk/programmes_offered.html

Click on post grad and scroll down to "Pre Masters" in Psychology.

I've applied and have been accepted for the Oscail Degree course, but considering the fact that I have already got a degree (BA in English and History), would the diploma option (8 modules, with 6 in Psychology) be a better option?Basically I'm looking at the diploma as an MA qualifier of sorts.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Gerry.

MysticalSoul

In response to the comments regarding PCI, as a student currently undertaking that course, I can not fault it. It has a good balance of covering the academic aspect, but also encourages furthering your own personal development. Having previously undertaken the first year of the equivalent course in DBS, which had far too much emphasis on the academic, and not enought on the personal/skills, I cannot fault the course.

Whilst training we are required to undertake a certain number of client hours, supervision hours, and last but not least, our own personal therapy. Whether someone has done psychology or not before doing such a course, is not necessary, as we do cover psychology modules within the course as well - developmental, abnormal, psychodynamics.

My own understanding of psychology, is that it is not until you are doing a masters that you start to see clients. On a personal level, I have seen psychologists and counsellors in the past, and I find the counsellors suit me better, as they focus more on the individual rather than on the theory. Just my two cents...

Creachadóir

gerrytm wrote:

Hello all.
After years of wandering about in the wilderness I've decided to go back to study and change careers, with a view to do counselling/clinical psychology.I've looked at the options in Oscail, Open University, the ICS which offers a degree from the University of East London and a masters qualifier from London College.(Edit, included a link but can't get it to work....ah here it is www.lcuck.ac.uk/programmes_offered.html

Click on post grad and scroll down to "Pre Masters" in Psychology.

I've applied and have been accepted for the Oscail Degree course, but considering the fact that I have already got a degree (BA in English and History), would the diploma option (8 modules, with 6 in Psychology) be a better option?Basically I'm looking at the diploma as an MA qualifier of sorts.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Gerry.

I want to do psychology as an MA qualifier also. As the Oscail course is not PSI approved, is it in any way useful for getting onto a Masters course? I see on the Oscail site that students are assessed on an individual basis for BPS approval. I've emailed Oscail, and they basically said that there were no promises it would be approved either way. But, basically, I'm wondering are most people approved by the BPS if they do the Oscail course? It seems to take less time AND be a lot cheaper than the OU.