--- title: Counselling Diploma with Placement url: https://thestudyguild.com/programmes/counselling-practitioner-diploma type: programme published: 2026-08-13 last_reviewed: 2026-08-13 reviewed_by: thomas-reid publisher: The Study Guild --- # Counselling Diploma with Placement A 16-week live counselling diploma with marked skills and a learner-sourced placement log, taught by a BACP-accredited counsellor. ## Programme facts - Price: £499 (payment plans available, never discounted) - Format: Live online + self-paced - Live contact hours: 32 - Expected self-study hours: 80 - Duration: 16 weeks - Level: All levels - Tutor: thomas-reid ## Learning outcomes - 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 ## Curriculum 1. **What this diploma is, and is not** — BACP and UKCP lists exist. We are not on them. The placement log is still required. Topics: Accredited course lists; What we cannot host; Certificate language; Who should leave now 2. **Ethics, contracting and notes** — The frame a placement provider will actually check. Topics: Informed consent; Confidentiality limits; Notes that would survive a complaint; Endings 3. **Skills under observation** — Listening, reflecting and staying in the client's process, marked on recordings. Topics: Presence; Reflection; Advice disguised as curiosity; Recorded practice 4. **Assessment and formulation without diagnosis theatre** — Enough structure to work, without pretending you are a psychiatrist. Topics: Risk; When to stop; Referral routes; Practice cases 5. **Finding a placement we do not provide** — How to ask, what to refuse, and what happens if you cannot find hours. Topics: Providers who host trainees; Insurance; If no placement appears; Honesty on the certificate 6. **Supervision that counts** — Who may supervise, how often, and logs the marker can audit. Topics: Supervisor criteria; Ratio of hours; What we will not invent; Failing a log 7. **Personal therapy as a requirement, not a perk** — Why trainees sit in the other chair, and how we check it without voyeurism. Topics: Hours; Confidentiality of your therapy; Evidence of attendance; Why skills courses skip this 8. **Working with difference** — Power, culture and the client who is not you. Topics: Equality duties; When you are the wrong practitioner; Referral as competence; Recorded practice 9. **Trauma-informed limits** — First-line counselling is not trauma treatment. The stop is the skill. Topics: Stabilisation versus processing; When specialist services own the work; Your placement's scope; Ethics case 10. **Online and hybrid delivery** — What can be taught on Zoom, and why the client hours still cannot. Topics: Remote skills practice; In-person placement; Safeguarding at a distance; Common marketing lies 11. **Private practice is not the next click** — Registration, insurance and the years after the live block. Topics: BACP and UKCP as buyers' checks; Directories; What sixteen weeks cannot do; The skills sister programme 12. **Placement clinic** — Live review of logs, stuck searches and ethics cases. Topics: Thin logs; Unsupervised hours; Resubmission; Issuing the certificate 13. **Endings and transfer** — Leaving a placement without abandoning a client. Topics: Handover; Notes; Your own ending; What next 14. **The BACP ethical framework in the room** — Using a published frame without claiming membership you may not have. Topics: Principles; Complaints; Advertising; Marked work 15. **Group process for trainees** — The cohort as a practice ground, not a therapy group. Topics: Feedback; Confidentiality in the room; When a trainee is not ready; Recordings 16. **Assessment week** — Skills recordings, ethics case and the log standard, in one room. Topics: Rubric; Common fails; Resubmission windows; The limit on the certificate ## Assessment 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. ## Upcoming cohorts - 2027-01-12 to 2027-04-27 — Tuesdays 18:30–20:30 UK, 16 weeks (open, cap 16) - 2027-09-07 to 2027-12-15 — Tuesdays 18:30–20:30 UK, 16 weeks (open, cap 16) ## 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](https://www.bacp.co.uk/careers/careers-in-counselling/) — British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy - [UKCP — Training standards](https://www.ukcp.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/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. --- Source: https://thestudyguild.com/programmes/counselling-practitioner-diploma · The Study Guild