Testimony ... 2007 Graduate
Youth Support Worker, Salvation Army
‘Doing this course straight out of high school was extremely beneficial. I learnt a lot about counselling but more so about myself...’
What the courses involve
The competency-based training program is a balanced, sequential and comprehensive presentation of the latest concepts of Christian counselling and family therapy. The subject matter is biblical and integrates psychology. It draws from a wide range of authorities and clinical experience.
The course emphasises personal application and growth, as well as personal equipping through training, class participation and sharing, demonstrations, small home-group activities, assignments and personal mentoring. Being competency-based, students are trained in counselling skills and the effective use of a counselling and family therapy model.
During each of the first two years, students attend four intensive teaching seminars that are scheduled 10 weeks apart. At the end of each 40 weeks period of study, students attend a further day for handing in assignments, oral presentations, review and final assessments.
Assignments, which are completed between teaching seminars, include weekly journaling, small group counselling skills training reports, counselling skills assignments, written and book assignments, literature review and various other assignments.
Students attend two small-home groups meetings each term for skills training and support.
In Year One students progressively work through a set of exercises with a learning partner .
Training includes developing basic counselling skills and learning a general model of Christian counselling in Year One, and a Christian model of family therapy in Year Two as well as undertaking a supervised therapy practicum.
Year Three, the Vocatonal Graduate Certificate (VGC), is an 'internship' where students develop their practical counselling expertise through integrating targeted professional development activities, resources gathering and personal clinical supervision into extensive practical counselling. Through their studies, students accumulate a minimum of 200 hours of counselling and 50 hours of supervision. The VGC is accredited by the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) under their Training Standard 2009.
Students are supported, monitored and personally mentored by tutors throughout the course.
