Counselling Studies Top-Up degree

Semester 1

• Week beginning 22 September 2025
• Fridays: 12pm to 2pm (mandatory module COU616)

The rest of your timetable will depend on which optional module you select. It will be one of these 3 timeslots per semester:

Modules time slots are:

• Monday: 1pm to 4pm (COU622/COU628)
• Friday: 9am to 12pm (COU629/COU626)
• Friday: 2pm to 5pm (COU624/COU627)

Full details of your individual academic timetable, including Semester 2 timetable which may differ, will be available via your university email calendar after you have completed online enrolment and set up your student login.

Please do continue your process of wider reading around this subject.

We recommend these two textbooks for your Counselling Studies Top-up course.

• Reeves, A. (2022) An Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy. From Theory to Practice. 3rd edition. London: Sage.
• McLeod, J. (2025) An introduction to counselling and psychotherapy : theory, research, practice, and social purpose. Seventh edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill. [eBook available]

The Counselling Studies Top-up programme has a strong emphasis on developing you as a research informed practitioner. Therefore, we’d encourage you to be reading research including summaries of studies in the BACP published Therapy Today.

You may also want to look at and refer to this book to support your development as a practitioner researcher:

• McLeod, J. (2022) Doing research in counselling and psychotherapy. Fourth edition. London: SAGE.

Your programme leader and teaching staff look forward to meeting with you during welcome week on:

• Thursday 18 September 2025
• 12:30pm to 4pm
• Room HI102

AND

• Friday 19 September
• 12pm to 2pm

Overview of induction session

• 12:30pm to 1pm:  Welcome and icebreakers 
• 1pm to 1:30pm: ID Checks (Julian of Norwich) 
• 1:30pm to -2:30pm: Introduction to your Programme, Getting to know each other 
• 3pm to 4pm: Accessing My Newman, Moodle, Self-Service Portal, Timetable, Moodle Forum Activity, Email set up and sending emails 

You will be taught a range of staff from our counselling and psychotherapy team including:

• Rebekah Woodhouse – Senior Lecturer
• Dr Bill Naylor – Senior Lecturer
• Dr Steve Roberts – Senior Lecturer
• Linda Luckhurst – Senior Lecturer
• Emily Evans – Senior Lecturer
• Cassie Rowland – Lecturer

Your teaching during Semester 1 will depend on the module options you have chosen for your first year- your optional module may run in semester 2.

• COU616 Research in Counselling is a mandatory module which runs in Semester 1 and 2
• Friday 12:00-14:00 with Rebekah Woodhouse

Optional semester 1 modules are:

• COU622- Therapeutic Approaches to Supporting Children and Families
• Monday 13:00-16:00 with Emily Evans

• COU629- Mindfulness and CBT
• Friday 9:00-12:00 with Linda Luckhurst

• COU624 – Bereavement and Loss
• Friday 14:00-17:00 with Bill Naylor

You will find that all teaching is a mixture of formal lectures, group discussions and classroom based activities. There is a strong focus on experiential learning (learning by doing and reflecting).

As well the formal academic and practical learning, you will have the opportunity to discover the range of resources and support that Newman offers (including library, IT and Student Support).

In semester 1, you will also meet with your personal tutor. Their role is to ensure that you are supported in dealing with any obstacles or issues that might be preventing you from succeeding fully on this programme.

Full details of your individual academic timetable, including Semester 2, will be available via your university Outlook calendar which is available after you have completed online enrolment and set up your student login.