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As a counselor with a Bachelor of Counseling, you can work for a company or work for yourself. You can make a big difference in things like grief and loss, relationships, abuse, youth and adolescents, family, stress, trauma recovery, addictions, mental health, and many other things.
In history, there has never been a better time for you to become a counselor or improve your counseling skills. People in Australia need help from counselors more than at any time in their lives. In this job, you’ll be doing what you love and have the security of knowing that there are many opportunities for work and for you to work for yourself.
In the past, we’ve helped people of all kinds become counselors, no matter what their background was. Our students who go to college come from a wide range of experiences. Some people, like teachers, nurses, ministers of religion, corrective services officers, and administrators, want to learn how to be better counselors in addition to their primary job.
Some people are looking for a new job in a rewarding field. Some people already have a vocational counseling certificate and want a tertiary certificate. It is approved for FEE-HELP, supported by the Australian Counselling Association, and primarily online, but some residential classes are at our national campuses. It is mainly done online, but there are some residential classes.
It’s a good thing to do
Our unique Bachelor of Counseling degree gives you a fully integrated program of study that focuses on each person’s psychosocial, personal, and spiritual development as they grow older. In Year One, you will learn about various theories and approaches to Counseling, look at your values, beliefs, and experiences from your culture and family, figure out how to take care of yourself, and learn about the skills needed to be a good counselor.
You’ll also start to learn practical counseling skills in Years One and Two. In Years Two and Three, you’ll learn to help children, adolescents, couples, families, and older people. The program combines theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience to cover almost every situation people face.
You will learn how to build a positive relationship with your clients, which will help you use the therapeutic relationship as the focus of your treatment. The program includes a placement in a counseling agency that will supervise your work, including at least 40 hours of face-to-face contact with a client.
Your order allows you to get practical experience and build a professional network, which could help you get a job. After you finish school, you can become a professional counselor with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) (ACA).
Courses that will help you become a counselor
An excellent job as a counselor is usually based on having recognized qualifications and skills beyond basic Counseling.
- A bachelor’s degree or higher is almost always required for most professional jobs, not just a simple high school diploma.
- If you want to work in Counseling, you need to have a professional degree in Counseling, social work, or psychology.
- It’s essential to have training and experience to be a counselor. This allows you to give expert advice, like teaching, nursing, or social work.
People who work in psychotherapy and Counseling should choose an online counseling course approved by the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA).
The Bachelor of Counseling Degrees are for people who want to help people
An undergraduate course in Counseling gives you the chance to learn about a lot more than just Counseling. There are programs in Australia that allow you to combine Counseling with other fields, like community welfare and psychology.
USQ has a Bachelor of Human Services
There is a major in Counseling at the University of Southern Queensland that you can take as part of your degree in Human Services. A second major can be chosen from Child and Family Studies, Community Development and Indigenous Studies, Health and Social Wellbeing, and Human Resource Management, among other things. Professional accreditation requires some on-campus attendance (in Toowoomba, Fraser Coast, or Springfield) for people to get their jobs.
ACAP has a Bachelor of Counselling
A fully accredited Bachelor of Counselling program can be done in a mix of on-campus and online classes at the Australian College of Applied Psychology (combining online and on-campus study). Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney are all cities in which ACAP runs the course so that you can take it there. It comes with 250 hours of supervised work placements. The program teaches students to be professional counselors by giving them practical skills and a solid theoretical base.
Getting a Graduate Certificate in Counseling
Online Graduate Certificate in Counseling is a good choice for people who have already gone to college and want to start working in Counseling. This short course will help you learn some new things and set the stage for more study.
A Graduate Certificate in Counseling from ECU
Doing the Graduate Certificate of Counselling at Edith Cowan University is a simple and effective way to get a university certificate. ECU’s 3-unit online course can be completed in just 6 months of part-time study. It’s a way to get into ECU’s Master of Counselling. Students learn about the foundations of Counseling, the role of the counselor, and different types of counseling theories and techniques. Counseling can be used in nursing, social work, and teaching because of the information learned.
A master’s and a graduate diploma
A postgraduate counseling course can help you get certified or, if you’re already a counselor, help you improve your skills. Most people who want to become professionals after graduating from other fields usually get a graduate diploma or a master’s degree, but it’s not the only option.
In ECU, you can get a Master of Counselling
If you go to Edith Cowan University, you can get your Master of Counseling degree from the Australian Counseling Association (ACA). While most of the class is done online, each student must do 250 hours with an approved organization. The course comprises 12 units and takes two years of part-time study. The work placement is worth two teams. Students benefit from online learning that is easy to get to and moves quickly. You can study all year long, moving to a new unit every two months.
It’s possible to take postgraduate courses at ACAP
The Australian College of Applied Psychology has a postgraduate program in Counseling done in a hybrid format, which means that some of the classes are held on campus. Graduate Diploma of Counselling is taught in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide. It takes two years to finish the course. If you want to get a 2-year Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy from the universities in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, you can do it there.
