About the Birkbeck Centre for Counselling

The Birkbeck Counselling Centre is a centre of excellence for counselling and psychotherapy studies, offering a range of courses for students at all levels from complete beginners to those wishing to undertake a full professional training.

Students can choose whether to develop a broad-based understanding of counselling and counselling skills or to specialise in psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy with our unique organisational and psychosocial perspectives.

Counselling and psychotherapy have been taught successfully at Birkbeck for over 50 years. Our core mission is to widely disseminate the understanding and practice of therapy, particularly psychodynamic counselling/psychotherapy, in order to support improvements in mental health and to promote interpersonal understanding between individuals, groups and organisations.

We have a unique position nestled within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences which facilitates close academic relationships with related subject areas, such as psychosocial studies and health and social care. The lively research environment contributes to the academic rigour and contemporary relevance of our courses.

The psychodynamic model we teach developed out of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis which has been modified and updated over time. We combine this with the study of unconscious and interpersonal processes in groups and organisations - aimed to support those working in an organisational setting - and a unique psychosocial perspective which ensures our students are equipped to work effectively in today's diverse society.

Our clinical teaching staff draw on their extensive current professional experience to inform and enrich their teaching and you can read a selection of staff publications.

In additional to our own foundation courses and professional trainings, we run courses with external high-profile psychotherapy organisations, such as the British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF) and Tavistock Relationships (TR). We also have links with research institutes which undertake mental health-related research, such as the Birkbeck Centre for Interdisciplinary Mental Health Research (CIMHR) and the European Educational Research Association (EERA).