You will complete a supervised placement of at least 100hrs counselling with children and young people. At least 50hrs must involve working with children aged between 4yrs and 10yrs. At least 50hrs must involve working with young people aged between 11yrs and 18yrs. This counselling work should include a blend of remote and in-person counselling, with no less than 40% of hours in either delivery mode (e.g., up to 40% in-person and the rest of the hours remote OR up to 40% remote and the rest of the hours in-person). You must also receive the required number of hours of supervision in accordance with your practice. Supervision can be remote or in-person, but should be aligned to the delivery mode of your counselling practice.

To support your counselling practice, you will attend regular Personal and Professional Development groups and you will need to show active engagement in all these sessions over the year. These sessions will also guide you through your placement and support you in compiling your placement evidence and producing your case study.

Assessment Strategy

You must achieve a threshold of 50% to pass this module. Please see below for guidance on what you must demonstrate in your work to achieve different levels of performance.

Excellent (A*, A+, A, A-) • Completed placement of 100hrs of supervised face-to-face therapy, including 50hrs with children aged 4-10yrs and 50hrs with young people aged 11-18yrs • Insightful empirically based understanding of working therapeutically with children and young people • Safe, intuitive, and perceptive reflective practice of counselling with children and young people in an organisational context • Detailed understanding with no factual errors • Critical analysis showing evaluation and synthesis of ideas • Originality in approach, interpretation, and voice • Extensive independent research • Logically defended arguments with evidence for all claims • Highly focused and well-structured • Excellent presentation with accurate and appropriate expression • Correct format in appropriate referencing style

Good (B+, B, B-) • Completed placement of 100hrs of supervised face-to-face therapy, including 50hrs with children aged 4-10yrs and 50hrs with young people aged 11-18yrs • Considered empirically based understanding of working therapeutically with children and young people • Safe and perceptive reflective practice of counselling with children and young people in an organisational context • Clear understanding and mostly free of factual errors • Some analysis showing critical evaluation and links between ideas • Some originality in approach, interpretation, and/or voice • Some independent research • Coherent arguments with evidence for most claims • Generally focused and well-structured • Good presentation with accurate and appropriate expression • Mostly correct format in appropriate referencing style

Threshold (C+, C, C-) • Completed placement of 100hrs of supervised face-to-face therapy, including 50hrs with children aged 4-10yrs and 50hrs with young people aged 11-18yrs • Basic understanding of working therapeutically with children and young people • Safe reflective practice of counselling with children and young people in an organisational context • Understanding of the main concepts, but with factual errors in non-core concepts • Limited analysis showing only obvious points of evaluation and links between ideas • Small amount of originality in approach, interpretation, and/or voice • Small amount of independent research • Arguments presented but lack coherence with evidence for some claims • Focused but with some irrelevant material and weaknesses in structure • Acceptable presentation with appropriate expression • Attempt at correct format in appropriate referencing style

If you do not meet the threshold, then your work will be graded as a Fail (less than 50%). Fail grades vary from Poor (D+, D, D-, E+, E, E-) to Very Poor (F).

Learning Outcomes

• Critically self-reflect to develop own therapeutic skills for interventions with children and young people.

• Critically understand and apply a therapeutic philosophy in practice with children and young people.

• Demonstrate a theoretical and applied understanding of how to support children and young people in managing their emotions, relationships, mental health, and wellbeing.

• Work effectively as a counsellor for children and young people, with an applied awareness of ethics, safeguarding, risk, and the organisational context.