A new course from Vision College will open doors for Christians wanting to become professional counsellors. The Vision College School of Counselling in Christchurch and Hamilton will be offering students the chance to study towards a Bachelor degree from next year.

The programme is NZQA accredited and has been designed to provide students with the training, self-development and skills required to develop an effective and sustainable professional counselling career. It is also based on a strong biblical foundation.

The Vision College Bachelor of Counselling programme includes professional placements in approved counselling agencies, such as high schools and community counselling agencies. The course is three years long on full-time study but students have the option of spreading the first year’s papers over two years of part-time study, followed by two years of full-time study to complete the degree.

“Counselling as a profession has been on a journey of professionalism in New Zealand for a number of years now. The industry changes being proposed are expected to make a degree the minimum qualification required for counsellors wanting to practice professionally,” says Andrea Dobbs, head of the College. “This is an ideal course for people who are already involved in caring or helping people and want to develop it into a profession. Our training will help those people develop as counsellors based on who they are, their life experiences, and their particular passions. There are a lot of different settings where counsellors can work and we encourage our students to find the best fit. For instance, one of our diploma graduates came to us with a background in adventure tourism and industrial psychology and is now working with at-risk youth doing things like wilderness therapy.”

Vision College offered the first Christian-based Counselling Diploma in New Zealand in 1994 and since then hundreds of graduates have now outworked their qualification in a wide range of people-helping industries, including professional counselling practices, Government agencies and churches. Enrolments are now being accepted for the Vision College Bachelor of Counselling programme 2012.

By Gemma Margerison