MSc Therapeutic Counselling University of Greenwich

Hi there
Me too - and also received the same email! Was confounded, and not expecting it. I was thinking it may be down to everything being online and needing to whittle it down more? Did you complete yours yet... I’m procrastinating so much! Was you question - what is therapeutic counselling?

Glad its not just me! Attempting to tackle this today
I think, going by the word count, I plan to keep it quite simple...a definite overview instead of dissecting modalities or deeper concepts.
I'm hoping for the referencing, we just. have to show we are capable of doing that...hopefully it doesn't have to be scattered with many ref's from a million different sources...! To be honest I've also never heard of academic writing being referred to as levels before either, I took a little look at this online and found it quite useful...http://academic-skills.health.herts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Examples-of-level-7-writing.pdf

My undergrad is also in something entirely different!

ah well done Cast! fingers crossed indeed if you don't mind me asking, roughly how far in advance is it and it is in person or a video call?

Hi all. I applied for the MSc Therapeutic Counselling course at the University of Greenwich and heard back after a couple of weeks via an email asking me to complete a short essay, based on which I may be invited to interview. This is separate to my personal statement.

Given that this was not mentioned anywhere in the application or on the website (which just stated that there would be 'a small group information session, plus a formal one-to-one interview'), this threw me a little! Any other applicants had the same request or does this just suggest they aren't sure about me?

Take the essay without any warning, just flumpped on you as a taste of things to come. Think carefully about your choice as you are wasting thousands of pounds. I am a past student and choosing this course at this university was the biggest mistake I ever made.

From my own personal experience I found tutors incompetent with their teaching and feedback, extremely unsupportive, harsh with their marks, no interest in students wellbeing, lectures were hard to follow. I can honestly say that I have learned more from CPD's and online courses than I did with this course. The course is advertised as part-time but really its fulltime as not one person on my course was able to keep their job or not reduce their working hours drastically due to the amount of reading and assignments required (often overlapping). It is also common not to receive feedback before having to submit another essay. I have taken courses at other universities and never had any problems or saw so many unhappy students as I have with this one. Complaints on this course seem to be rocket high but ignored as its been ongoing for the past 10 years and nothing substantial has been done about it. In the first year I questioned my thoughts and feelings about the course as I felt that maybe it was to do with being new and having so much to learn but as the years went by and I understood more about counselling I realised that actually it was more to do with the tutors than myself and obviously these thoughts were reinforced by other students sharing their bad experiences.

From my own personal experience I found tutors incompetent with their teaching and feedback, extremely unsupportive, harsh with their marks, no interest in students wellbeing, lectures were hard to follow. I can honestly say that I have learned more from CPD's and online courses than I did with this course. The course is advertised as part-time but really its fulltime as not one person on my course was able to keep their job or not reduce their working hours drastically due to the amount of reading and assignments required (often overlapping). It is also common not to receive feedback before having to submit another essay. I have taken courses at other universities and never had any problems or saw so many unhappy students as I have with this one. Complaints on this course seem to be rocket high but ignored as its been ongoing for the past 10 years and nothing substantial has been done about it. In the first year I questioned my thoughts and feelings about the course as I felt that maybe it was to do with being new and having so much to learn but as the years went by and I understood more about counselling I realised that actually it was more to do with the tutors than myself and obviously these thoughts were reinforced by other students sharing their bad experiences.

Thank you for sharing this - it's not promising to say the least.

Despite emailing both of the uni staff I had been in contact with since, I now haven't heard anything back since submitting the essay. Even if it's a no, you would think they could let me know when they've clearly been in touch with at least one other person! That didn't fill me with optimism by itself but I wrote it off as being busy with the circumstances etc. Now I'm wondering if it's a warning of things to come as well!

To be honest what you've shared concerns me a lot. There is only one other place (in Manchester iirc!) that offers a course accredited for qualifying as a counsellor while also being a Masters in its own right which, with my circumstances, is all I will likely be able to fund any time soon, and which fulfils both of my goals in one, academically and professionally. I'm unsure what to do even if I am offered a place now!

EDIT - there are some others now coming up that definitely didn't when I applied, but they are logistically almost as bad as Manchester, where there was a possibility of moving to at least. This is still the only accredited MSc that I seem to be eligible for and geographically close enough to!

I must say that this was my experience too. I could have written this post myself! It was also the experience of many others in my cohort. It was incredibly demoralising. Fortunately, CPD, support from good supervisors, and professional experience have helped make up the deficits and rebuild my self-esteem. Nonetheless, due to the experience I had, enrolling on that course remains one of my biggest regrets in life.

Have you tried University of East London (which is also cheaper), Metanoia or Roehampton? I've heard very good feedback from the first two I mentioned.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with them as well! It really sounds awful to be honest. I appreciate you coming forward and sharing how you found it and I'm glad things have improved for you.




UEL is actually also a possibility - Roehampton just isn't practically doable for me due to location, but I'm definitely going to get in contact with UEL. Metanoia was on my radar but having checked on their site again it looks like they only offer undergrad courses in purely Counselling specifically, which I don't think I can fund as I already did a BA in a different subject.Thank you very much for your input and reminding me of UEL, though! I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with Greenwich and can't help feeling like not going would be dodging a bullet, having slept on it. I hope you've had a better time of things since completing it.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with them as well! It really sounds awful to be honest. I appreciate you coming forward and sharing how you found it and I'm glad things have improved for you.




UEL is actually also a possibility - Roehampton just isn't practically doable for me due to location, but I'm definitely going to get in contact with UEL. Metanoia was on my radar but having checked on their site again it looks like they only offer undergrad courses in purely Counselling specifically, which I don't think I can fund as I already did a BA in a different subject.Thank you very much for your input and reminding me of UEL, though! I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with Greenwich and can't help feeling like not going would be dodging a bullet, having slept on it. I hope you've had a better time of things since completing it.