Entry requirements

Our standard postgraduate entry requirement is a second-class honours degree (2:2 or above) or an equivalent international qualification, however, professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience are taken into consideration positively and may be accepted in place of a degree. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.

A minimum of one year full-time (or equivalent part-time) experience of direct work with children and/or adolescents in a professional role and/or helping capacity in an organisational setting is required. You should also have completed a psychodynamic counselling/psychotherapy course at Certificate of Higher Education level (Merit) or equivalent.

We will request a short assignment from non-standard entrants.

Months of entry

October

Course content

This MSc is a well-established counselling and psychotherapy training course that is ideal if you wish to work therapeutically with children and young people. It offers you a thorough grounding in contemporary psychodynamic theory and practice and integrates unique psychosocial and organisational perspectives to facilitate a broad understanding of children in context.

Why choose this course?

This course offers you a two-year clinical placement, divided equally into work with children (5-11 years) and work with adolescents (12-18 years), so that you can gain work experience valuable for your future employability and learn how to work safely and collaboratively within an interdisciplinary organisational setting.
It includes a one-year mother-infant observation to hone your observation skills.
It is ideal if you have some experience of working with children and adolescents and wish to pursue a career in the counselling and psychotherapy sector, for example if you are a nurse, teacher, youth worker, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) practitioner or social worker.
It is taught by experienced, practising psychodynamic and/or psychoanalytic psychotherapists who also have training in higher education teaching.

What you will learn

On this course you will learn the fundamentals of psychodynamic theory and practice, using both contemporary resources and source texts. You will be encouraged to take a psychosocial perspective to consider the interplay between our internal and external worlds and how children’s identities are formed in context.

You will also develop a self-reflective stance which is central to counselling practice and consolidate this with your own personal therapy which is compulsory throughout the course.

By the end of the course you will have gained the ability to work as a psychodynamic counsellor at an appropriate professional standard with children and adolescents.

How you will learn

This course is available to study part-time in the daytime. You will learn via a mixture of academic and experiential learning taking part in presentations and discussions and practising your counselling skills. Your clinical learning is facilitated by an external clinical placement in your second and third years, along with regular clinical supervision.

Highlights

This course is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the British Psychoanalytic Council.
Birkbeck has 50 years' experience of teaching psychodynamic counselling and practice and an excellent reputation with employers.
There is an emphasis on this course on how organisations and groups function which will enable you to understand and manage professional settings and relationships.
The course attracts people from a range of backgrounds, including educational, medical, field and residential social work, youth work and voluntary agencies.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this MSc Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents, you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including in:

listening
clinical thinking
critical thinking
academic writing
observation
reflexivity
effective group/organisational participation.

Graduates can pursue career paths in counselling and education. Possible professions include:

child psychotherapist
counsellor
educational psychologist
learning mentor
youth worker.

Birkbeck graduates from this course have gone on to be employed in various therapeutic and educational settings including in charities such as Place2Be and the Brent Centre for Young People, schools and colleges, and also in research.

Read about how you can become a professional counsellor or psychotherapist.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.

Information for international students

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this course is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement, we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.