Counselling Diploma with Placement
Live counsellor training with a supervised placement log you arrange, without pretending the Guild is BACP-accredited or hosts the hours.
Taught and assessed by
Thomas ReidProfile pending contract
- Live teaching
- 32h
- Self-study
- 80h
- Duration
- 16 weeks
- Weekly load
- ~7h
What you will be able to do
- Contract, note and end counselling work against a published ethical frame
- Submit recorded skills that can fail
- Arrange and evidence supervised client hours in a placement you source
- State, in writing, that this pass is not BACP or UKCP registration
- Stop and refer when the presentation exceeds the placement's scope
- Complete personal-therapy and supervision logs the marker can check
Who this is for
- People who wanted counsellor training with real client hours, not a skills certificate relabelled
- Career changers willing to find a placement provider and a supervisor themselves
- Graduates of counselling-skills courses who now want the longer product
- Anyone who will accept a fail if the placement log is thin or unsupervised
Who this is not for
- Anyone who needed a BACP- or UKCP-accredited diploma the Guild does not provide
- Anyone who expected us to host or guarantee a clinical placement
- Anyone planning to advertise as a registered counsellor after sixteen weeks of teaching
- Anyone unwilling to complete placement hours after the live block
What you need before you start
- Ability to source a placement and an independent supervisor; we do not host either
- Willingness to be recorded and to undertake personal therapy as specified in the handbook
- Counselling Skills, or equivalent listening practice, is useful but not required
What you will actually learn
16 modules · 16 weeks · 32h live
What this diploma is, and is notBACP and UKCP lists exist. We are not on them. The placement log is still required.
Covered in this module
- Accredited course lists
- What we cannot host
- Certificate language
- Who should leave now
Ethics, contracting and notesThe frame a placement provider will actually check.
Covered in this module
- Informed consent
- Confidentiality limits
- Notes that would survive a complaint
- Endings
Skills under observationListening, reflecting and staying in the client's process, marked on recordings.
Covered in this module
- Presence
- Reflection
- Advice disguised as curiosity
- Recorded practice
Assessment and formulation without diagnosis theatreEnough structure to work, without pretending you are a psychiatrist.
Covered in this module
- Risk
- When to stop
- Referral routes
- Practice cases
Finding a placement we do not provideHow to ask, what to refuse, and what happens if you cannot find hours.
Covered in this module
- Providers who host trainees
- Insurance
- If no placement appears
- Honesty on the certificate
Supervision that countsWho may supervise, how often, and logs the marker can audit.
Covered in this module
- Supervisor criteria
- Ratio of hours
- What we will not invent
- Failing a log
Personal therapy as a requirement, not a perkWhy trainees sit in the other chair, and how we check it without voyeurism.
Covered in this module
- Hours
- Confidentiality of your therapy
- Evidence of attendance
- Why skills courses skip this
Working with differencePower, culture and the client who is not you.
Covered in this module
- Equality duties
- When you are the wrong practitioner
- Referral as competence
- Recorded practice
Trauma-informed limitsFirst-line counselling is not trauma treatment. The stop is the skill.
Covered in this module
- Stabilisation versus processing
- When specialist services own the work
- Your placement's scope
- Ethics case
Online and hybrid deliveryWhat can be taught on Zoom, and why the client hours still cannot.
Covered in this module
- Remote skills practice
- In-person placement
- Safeguarding at a distance
- Common marketing lies
Private practice is not the next clickRegistration, insurance and the years after the live block.
Covered in this module
- BACP and UKCP as buyers' checks
- Directories
- What sixteen weeks cannot do
- The skills sister programme
Placement clinicLive review of logs, stuck searches and ethics cases.
Covered in this module
- Thin logs
- Unsupervised hours
- Resubmission
- Issuing the certificate
Endings and transferLeaving a placement without abandoning a client.
Covered in this module
- Handover
- Notes
- Your own ending
- What next
The BACP ethical framework in the roomUsing a published frame without claiming membership you may not have.
Covered in this module
- Principles
- Complaints
- Advertising
- Marked work
Group process for traineesThe cohort as a practice ground, not a therapy group.
Covered in this module
- Feedback
- Confidentiality in the room
- When a trainee is not ready
- Recordings
Assessment weekSkills recordings, ethics case and the log standard, in one room.
Covered in this module
- Rubric
- Common fails
- Resubmission windows
- The limit on the certificate
Dates and timetable
Counselling Diploma with Placement runs as a live cohort over 16 weeks. Pick the start date that fits — every cohort gets the same tutor, curriculum and assessment.
| Starts | Live sessions | Cap | Status and action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ends | Tuesdays 18:30–20:30 UK, 16 weeks | 16 | Choose this date → |
| Ends | Tuesdays 18:30–20:30 UK, 16 weeks | 16 | Choose this date → |
How you are assessed
Recorded counselling skills, a written ethics and contracting case, and a supervised placement log the learner arranges, marked by Thomas Reid. The certificate is issued only when all three pass. Written feedback with one free resubmission on the taught work. A thin, unsupervised or invented log does not pass. A pass is not BACP or UKCP registration.
Our accreditation applications are in progress. We do not display an accreditation mark before it is granted — see the current status.
After you pass
- Placement-search guidance and supervisor criteria in the handbook
- Certificate wording that names the accreditation we do not hold
What is this counselling diploma?
Live counsellor training with marked skills and a supervised placement log you arrange. The Guild does not host placements and is not a BACP- or UKCP-accredited course provider. A pass requires evidenced client hours under a supervisor you appoint. It is not registration, and the certificate says so.
Does this programme lead to BACP or UKCP registration?
No. Those bodies register people who complete accredited training that meets their published rules, including placement and personal therapy conditions we do not claim to satisfy. Completing our log does not put you on their registers. If that destination is the buying criterion, start from their accredited course lists.
Sources
- BACP — Careers in counselling — British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
- UKCP — Training standards — UK Council for Psychotherapy
Who provides the clinical placement?
You do. We publish supervisor criteria and placement-search guidance. We do not run a clinic, we do not guarantee hours, and we will not invent a host. If you cannot evidence supervised client work, the certificate is not issued. That is the difference between this product and a marketplace diploma that skipped the hours.
How is this different from Counselling Skills?
Counselling Skills is eight weeks of marked listening for people who are not becoming counsellors. This diploma is longer, requires a placement log, and still does not confer registration. If you needed better conversations in the job you already have, take skills. If you wanted counsellor training with hours, this is the honest Guild product.
Common questions
Why not wait until you are BACP-accredited?
Because specialists can review a placement-based product now, and we would rather sell it with the limit printed than pretend a skills certificate is the career.
What if I cannot find a placement?
You do not receive the diploma. Taught work can still be marked; the certificate requires the log. We will not host a substitute clinic.
Is counsellor a protected title?
No. Employers and referrers still treat BACP or UKCP registration as the practical check. Do not use registered-counsellor language after this course.
Can I pay in instalments?
Yes. Interest-free plans total exactly £499.
Related reading
Counselling Training in the UK
What it takes to qualify as a counsellor in the UK, why short courses cannot get you there, and what a counselling-skills course is actually for.
SubjectCounsellor training with placement
What UK counsellor training with placement requires, why we cannot host hours or award BACP accreditation, and how that differs from skills.
SubjectHow to become a counsellor in the UK
What it actually takes to qualify as a counsellor in the UK, why placements cannot be skipped, and what a counselling-skills certificate is for.
ProgrammeCounselling Skills
An 8-week live counselling-skills programme with marked recordings, taught by a BACP-registered counsellor, explicitly not counsellor training.
CareerCounsellor career pathway in the UK
What becoming a UK counsellor actually requires, why placement hours cannot be skipped, and how a non-accredited diploma differs from BACP registration.
AnswerDoes counsellor training need a placement?
UK counsellor training needs supervised hours. A skills certificate is not that. A non-accredited diploma with a log you source is still not BACP.