With this Bereavement Counselling Short Course specific attention will be given to psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural and person-centred approaches. These methods will give students a fuller working knowledge and understanding of advanced counselling skills.

In specialist counselling fields, these advanced skills are necessary in order to be able to recognise and deal with the complex range of client needs, together with being able to understand the origins of these particular emotions and possible physiological factors.

The course is divided into 10 units of study, you can read a detailed summary of each unit below.

Bereavement Counselling Short Course Content

Unit 1: Reappraisal, approaches and theories of counselling

The first module reflects on previous knowledge and looks in detail at the five theories which have been adopted as the main approaches in counselling. The work of Freud, Rogers, Skinner, Ellis, Jung and Eagan will be looked at in brief in this module, and the corresponding counselling approaches examined.

Unit 2: The psychodynamic approach

Students will look at how the psychodynamic approach works and is applied to the counselling situation. Specific examples and activities will give the student indications as to which particular set of client conditions benefits most from this approach.

Unit 3: The cognitive behavioural approach

In this module students will look at how the cognitive behavioural approach works and is applied to the counselling situation. Specific examples and activities will give the student indications as to which particular set of client circumstances benefits most from this approach.

Unit 4: The person-centred approach

This module will look at how they work and are applied to the counselling situation. Specific examples and activities will give the student indications as to which particular set of client circumstances benefits most from this approach.

Unit 5: Process, skill and boundaries

Students will have the opportunity to examine the counselling process itself and the skills needed in bereavement counselling. The module will also discuss boundaries or limitations in this most sensitive area of work and will look at how to recognise and deal with these limitations; where to go next and what the following steps are.

Unit 6: Loss; concepts, origins and perspectives

The main focus of this module is looking at the concepts of loss in terms of how humans interpret different kinds of losses, and how these losses are put into categories. Cultural issues within a multicultural society will be examined, together with people’s perspectives on the loss of life and the historical denial or fear which has evolved since modern ‘death’ has become an unseen event.

Unit 7: Understanding bereavement

The grieving process is the main topic area for this module. Students will learn to understand the individual needs of people dealing with bereavement and will give an insight into the implications of the process which can be psychological and physiological.

Unit 8: Responding to grief

Bereavement counselling sessions are covered within this unit. Students will extend their vocabulary of the subject area. Appropriate vocabulary, expectations and responses will be examined, and there will be detailed references to particular skills which should be employed in certain situations.

Unit 9: Bereavement counselling for special groups: Part 1

The remaining two modules both focus on counselling for special groups. In this module the student will learn how to deal with special individual groups: the loss of a partner, loss of a child, bereavement through trauma, disaster, war, terrorism and suicide.

Unit 10: Bereavement counselling for special groups: Part 2

This module looks at the remaining special groups: children’s bereavement, the loss of a pet, empathetic grief, and other bereavement situations.

Bereavement Counselling Short Course Diploma Entry Requirements

All students must be 18 years of age and above to enter into our Bereavement Counselling Short Course Diploma (Level 3).

Short Course Diploma courses require a minimum prior learning to GCSE standard in order that students can manage their studies and the assumed knowledge within course content.

Study Hours

200 hours in total or 20 hours per week over 10 weeks.

Assessment

Written assessment at the end of each unit of study.