80 Railway St Cottesloe Ph 9385 5835 caladenia.counsel@murdoch.edu.au

What is Unique about our counselling programs?

a. Observing real therapists in-action: From their first semester, our students observe the lecturing staff conducting therapy with real clients, from a viewing facility behind a one-way mirror. Students then have an opportunity to discuss what they observe. From time to time, students are invited to participate in the therapy session with their therapist and client. You will see therapist work from quite different orientations such as person-centred work, existential work and Cognitive-behavioural therapy amongst others.
b. Doing groupwork: You get to be a participant in an experiential group and you get a chance to learn how to lead such a group. This will provide peer support and feedback as well as an opportunity for challenging personal reflection on your development as a Counsellor.
c. Preparing for client-work: You are assessed on the development of your counseling skills from the very first semester as you prepare through role plays with your class mates. We use video-analysis to assist us in providing you with feedback about your way of engaging with your ‘client’.
d. All courses are case-based: That is, they draw on the extensive career experience of our counseling staff to bring each topic alive through the discussion of real cases.
e. Seeing clients: As you progress, you will begin to see real clients under the close supervision and support of our counseling staff.

a. Community-based work: Your internal practicum will not occur in an on-campus clinic but rather in our community-based centre in Cottesloe. Caladenia House is the home of our Godfrey Barrett-Lennard Counsellor Training Centre. This is a centre providing low-cost counseling for adult and child clients by our postgraduate students who are closely supervised by our Counselling Team.
b. Providing low-cost counseling: Caladenia house provides low-cost counseling for adults and children.
c. Multicultural work: We focus on providing a service that is accessible to all.
d. Two external practicums for the Masters program.

a. We consider the complexities of people’s lives when working with them, particularly the role of the key relationships in their lives.
b. You will have an opportunity to reflect on, and learn about your own relationship patterns and to consider how these might effect your work as a counselor.
c. We train our students in groupwork. Managing group dynamics is an important skill to have and a challenging art to master!

a. We try to tailor your learning opportunities to match your goals. If there is a particular client group that you are interested in working with, we try to attract these clients where possible.
b. We give you feedback on your progress toward your goals.
c. We are flexible in planning a pathway through our program that suits your personal and professional needs.

a. If you complete a Masters program, your research will be applied intervention research rather than basic, experimental laboratory based research. That is, you will develop a therapeutic program, implement it with a group of clients and evaluate it. We believe that these skills will be more relevant to you as a practitioner.
b. You will learn about evidence-based practice where that evidence base is drawn from diverse research approaches including both quantitative and qualitative methodologies

Our counseling staff specialize in humanistic therapies, art therapy, drama therapy, cognitive-behaviour therapy, neuropsychology, clinical psychology, work with children and families, and sport psychology. You will benefit from the diversity of expertise of each of our staff.

Becoming a counselor is a personal growth experience that can be quite emotionally demanding – we encourage all students to find themselves a counselor to supplement the personal development work that they complete as part of the program. See the comments from current students to find out more about their experiences.

Finally, each level of our program, folds into the one above so that you can progress based on your performance from Postgraduate Certificate to Postgraduate Diploma to Masters with 100% credit for work done.

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