(BA) Bachelor of Arts
Therapeutic Communication and Therapeutic Organisations
Current
University of Essex
University of Essex
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Colchester Campus
Honours Degree
Full-time
Health Studies
Psychology
BA LX5C
08/05/2024
Details
Professional accreditation
Accredited by the Association for Psychodynamic Practice and Counselling in Organisational Settings (APPCIOS).
Admission criteria
You should have passed the Foundation Degree in Therapeutic Communication and Therapeutic Organisations.
We accept a wide range of other qualifications from applicants studying in the UK, EU and other countries. For further details about the qualifications that we accept, please e-mail us with information about the high school qualifications you have already completed or are currently taking.
We welcome applications from mature students, students interested in direct entry to the second year and students wishing to defer entry.
Additional requirements
You must also have a satisfactory Occupational Health Check and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) - both of these are organised by the University. Please contact our DBS team if you have any questions relating to this.
A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS Check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 6.0 overall, or specified score in another equivalent test that we accept.
Details of English language requirements, including UK Visas and Immigration minimum component scores, and the tests we accept for applicants who require a Student visa (excluding Nationals of Majority English Speaking Countries) can be found here
If we accept the English component of an international qualification then it will be included in the information given about the academic levels listed above for the relevant countries.
Please note that date restrictions may apply to some English language qualifications.
If you are an international student requiring a Student visa to study in the UK please see our immigration webpages for the latest Home Office guidance on English language qualifications.
What if my IELTS does not meet your requirements?
If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.
Do I need to have achieved an acceptable English language qualification before I apply?
You don’t need to achieve the required level before making your application, but it will be one of the conditions of your offer.
What if the English language qualification I hold, or am taking, is not listed?
If you cannot find the qualification that you have achieved or are pending, then please contact Admissions on ugquery@essex.ac.uk
for advice.
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Dr Anthony John Faramelli
Lecturer in Visual Cultures
Goldsmiths
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
The programme aims to support practitioners in developing the insight, understanding and skills in order to deepen their therapeutic practice in working with young people and/or vulnerable adults.
A psychosocial approach is used, including a consideration of the therapeutic needs of the client, the way team and organisational dynamics can support or impede the work, and the core elements of establishing supportive, therapeutic working relationships.
The perspectives of the programme are relevant to work in many sectors including schools, fostering agencies, care setting, and mental health services.
More particularly, this programme aims:
- To utilise the students' existing work experience to introduce psychodynamic concepts
- To provide a basic psychoanalytic vocabulary and understanding of the unconscious dimension of relationships, communication and emotional containment
- To understand the psychodynamics in working groups and institutions
- To understand the principles of psychodynamic observation as a way of understanding institutions
- To understand the role of emotions in learning, and the differences from the role of behaviour in learning
- To develop a psychodynamic understanding of the effect of disruptive behaviour on the institution and the therapeutic potential of a psychodynamic management of the institution
- To understand a basic model of emotional functioning in individuals, groups and therapeutic and educational processes in institutions
- To explore ideas related to hope and the therapeutic process.
This course builds on the learning of the FdA Therapeutic Communication and Therapeutic Organisations.
It aims to equip the students with increased theoretical and practical expertise in the core areas covered by the course, i.e. in their work with children and adolescents or vulnerable or challenging adults and in their understanding of and ability to operate therapeutically within their organisations.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: Further theoretical knowledge of and understanding of the counselling relationship
A2: Further theoretical knowledge of an understanding of organisational dynamics
A3: Theoretical knowledge of and understanding of the mentoring supervisory relationship
A4: In depth knowledge of and understanding of a relevant topic of the students choice
Learning methods
Reading and seminars
Assessment methods
Essays and presentations
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: To define and use specific psychoanalytic concepts describing relationships and communication, including transference, counter-transference, projection, introjection, etc
B2: To describe psychoanalytically the unconscious factors in group structuring and functioning, such as anxiety, defences against anxiety, authority and leadership.
B3: To describe in psychoanalytic terms the impact of an institution on an individual and of an individual on an institution.
B4: To describe the emotional factors that affect learning, and the progression from emotional learning to emotional understanding, and their relationship to behaviour.
B5: To describe psychoanalytically the eruption, containment, management in groups, and in wider social settings, such as the family and community.
B6: To identify opportunities to consider with colleagues the sources of pessimism and optimism in individuals, groups and institutions, and to apply this recognition to working in institutions and planning for change.
Learning methods
The programme makes use of theoretical seminars (B1, B4), clinically orientated seminars (B2, B5, B6), work-based clinical practice (B4, B6), the experience of group relations and psychodynamic group observation (B2.
B3, B6).
In addition, students learn how to carry out psychodynamically informed social observations, and through work-place supervised practice and performative assessment, focus their theoretical understanding on specific settings and situations
Assessment methods
Essays and presentations
C: Practical skills
C1: Enhanced counselling skills
C2: Enhanced ability to conduct psychodynamic observation of organisations and to operate therapeutically in the workplace
C3: Ability to conduct a literature search and produce a self-organised piece of work
Learning methods
Application of learning in the workplace Seminar discussion of work Seminar discussion of observations Observation in an organisation
Assessment methods
Essays
D: Key skills
D1: Ability to communicate therapeutically with children and adolescents. Ability to communicate effectively in the workplace. Ability to convey understanding of individuals, interactions and organisations in essays, exams and dissertatio
D2: Basic computer literacy required
D3: Knowledge of the range of available research approaches and an understanding of how this knowledge relates to their chosen area of research
D4: Ability to apply psychodynamic thinking to work related issues and develop skill in using it in the here and now
D5: Ability to work constructively in the organisation. Ability to use seminar, mentor and tutorial input constructivel
D6: Ability to reflect on own practice is a key skill in all parts of the programme. Ability to conduct own approach to dissertation
Learning methods
All aspects of the course
Assessment methods
Mentoring report Essays Reflective report