Master of Counselling Practice

POSTGRADUATE COURSE
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Professional Outcomes

Building on life experience and skills developed during your undergraduate degree, Tabor’s Master of Counselling Practice is a comprehensive and robust course designed to equip graduates to work as private practitioners in the field of counselling, or for diverse roles within the human services sector in either government or non-government agencies.

Accredited with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), and also meeting the training standards of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA), graduates are eligible for professional registration as a Counsellor, opening doors to a challenging and rewarding career in the field of counselling practice.

Course Snapshot Download

About This Course

For more than 30 years, Tabor has been teaching students to listen. And we’ve been teaching them in real-life environments. The Master of Counselling Practice places a significant emphasis on supervised practice in clinical situations where students of the program engage in delivering practical one-on-one counselling.

The Masters program will help you develop a comprehensive understanding of evidence-based therapeutic practice and equip you to apply both critical thinking and theory across an extensive range of human conditions. This course builds the student’s self-awareness and capacity to relate to and engage with the broad range of clients in need of counselling.

The practice component of Master of Counselling Practice takes place in a placement context and at Tabor’s dedicated training facility – Life Design Counselling & Education. This space is fully equipped to enable students to conduct counselling sessions in a supportive learning environment.

The clinical practice of our Masters Counselling students is supervised in a variety of ways – including live observation of student counselling sessions, video review of student clinical practise, group supervision and case conference. Tabor’s aim is to develop our students into empathic and effective counsellors. Accordingly, in addition to coordinated group supervision, we provide considerable one-on-one supervision practise during the journey of each student.

The Master of Counselling Practice course work and clinical practice comprises 150 hours of client contact with 38 hours of supervision.

Read about Rina’s experience in the Master of Counselling Practice.

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge:

Graduates of a Master of Counselling Practice will be able to:  

  • Demonstrate advanced and integrated theoretical and technical knowledge of contemporary counselling practice, including an appreciation of recent scholarship and practice developments 
  • Explain research principles and methods relevant to counselling practice  

Skills:  

Graduates of the Master of Counselling Practice will be able to:  

  • Evaluate counselling theories in the light of contemporary scholarship and Christian thought with a view to their applicability to counselling practice   
  • Analyse the key elements of trauma, grief, loss and hope and the implications of these for counselling practice  
  • Evaluate complex client mental health, developmental and relational issues and generate solutions in ways which serve to serve support client wellbeing and flourishing  
  • Engage in therapeutic conversations demonstrating advanced counselling skills, developing therapeutic alliances and implementing appropriate interventions with well-developed reflective judgement, adaptability and initiative 
  • Work sensitively, creatively and ethically with diverse clients within varied contexts 

Application of Knowledge and Skills:

Graduates of the Master of Counselling Practice will be able to:  

  • Justify and communicate their conclusions and professional decisions to clients and human service professionals  
  • Critically reflect on and utilise research that contributes to one-on-one and group work counselling practice 
  • Synthesize performance feedback and supervision, including the evaluation of programs and interventions, to identify and action learning opportunities and self-improvements as a basis for lifelong learning  
  • Address the idiosyncratic nature of a client’s need through informed selection and ethical application of appropriate counselling skills and interventions and/or informed referral pathways
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Related Courses

Graduate Certificate in Counselling

Postgraduate Course

The Graduate Certificate in Counselling has been developed to allow those with a previous undergraduate qualification/s to continue developing skills for effective interpersonal engagement. The qualification also serves as a pathway as the subjects comprise the first semester of the Master of Counselling Practice course.
More Information

Graduate Diploma in Counselling

Postgraduate Course

The Graduate Diploma in Counselling has been developed to allow those with a previous undergraduate qualification/s to continue developing skills for effective interpersonal engagement. The qualification also serves as a pathway as the subjects comprise the first year of the Master of Counselling Practice course.
More Information

Course Structure

15

Unit Total

14

Core

1

Elective

Core

* unit pre-requisites required

Electives

Electives (subject to availability and pre-requisites)

Further electives can be chosen from:

  • Creative Writing and Communication Courses ― Master of Creative Writing and Communication
  • Education Courses ― Master of Education
  • Leadership Courses ― Master of Leadership
  • Theology Courses ― Master of Divinity

* unit pre-requisites required

Where can I study?

You can study on campus at Adelaide – Millswood SA, or partially online with online plus.

Field education placement is a requirement of this course and is offered at:

Adelaide – Millswood SA

How much does it cost?

Learn more about
fees and available payment options.

Application Process:

Applications may be accepted up to two weeks after the semester begins.

Click here to access the current Academic Calendar.

When can I start?

Semester 1 – February
Semester 2 – July

How long does it take?

2 years (24 months) full-time or part-time equivalent.

What do I need for entry?

ACADEMIC ADMISSION REQUIREMENT

Successful completion of a 3-year Bachelor’s degree with a Credit average of at least 5.0, or approved equivalent.

NON-ACADEMIC ADMISSION REQUIREMENT

  • Current CV
  • Transcripts from previous academic studies
  • Prospective students need to be able to demonstrate the presence of a set of human capacities as a pre-requisite for acceptance into a Counselling course at Tabor. This is demonstrated in two ways:

 

    1. A personal statement – addressing your motivation to study counselling and your choice of Tabor as an institution (750 words). We recommend that this statement be written as a first-person narrative that discusses your skills, personal qualities and experiences that will assist your development into an exceptional counsellor. Particular emphasis should be given to the personal qualities of an effective therapist as outlined in the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)’s Code of Ethics (page 7 – Available here).

    2. An intake interview – applicants must attend an interview in which they demonstrate capacities for counselling including self-awareness, relational abilities, ethical understanding, and the ability to reflect on experience and be open to feedback.

Additional Information

EXIT POINTS
Graduate Diploma in Counselling after 1 year full-time or part-time equivalent.
Graduate Certificate in Counselling after 6 months full-time or part-time equivalent.
COURSE CODES
Tabor: SS914C
SATAC: Not applicable
COURSE LEVEL
Postgraduate Course
MAKE AN ENQUIRY
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Email: enquiry@tabor.edu.au
Phone: 1300 482 267

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This qualification is TEQSA accredited and is recognised within the Australian Qualifications Framework