Highlights
- Ideal for professionals who can see the value of developing advanced knowledge and skills in counselling therapy and in the effective supervision of professionals and counsellors.
- Allows professionals from a variety of professional settings to develop skills in counselling.
- Take an applied, experiential focus to your studies, with an emphasis on brief solution-focused and narrative therapies, family therapy, group work and supervision.
- Gain practical experience in QUT's Psychology and Counselling Clinic.
Highlights
- Ideal for professionals who can see the value of developing advanced knowledge and skills in counselling therapy and in the effective supervision of professionals and counsellors.
- Allows professionals from a variety of professional settings to develop skills in counselling.
- Take an applied, experiential focus to your studies, with an emphasis on brief solution-focused and narrative therapies, family therapy, group work and supervision.
- This course is accredited by the Australian Counselling Association.
- Gain practical experience in QUT's Psychology and Counselling Clinic.
Real-world learning
Operating out of QUT Health Clinics at the Kelvin Grove campus, the Psychology and Counselling Clinic provides professional psychology, family therapy, and counselling services for the community.
This clinic offers training experiences for our postgraduate students across a wide range of psychotherapies, including reflecting team practice in counselling training.
Explore this course
This course offers professionals the opportunity to acquire advanced knowledge and skills in counselling. Course learning can be applied to a number of professional settings, and students in this program come from nursing, education, community arts, justice, human services, and other allied health backgrounds.
During this program you will learn about a range of approaches and techniques that can be applied to brief and collaborative counselling work with individuals, couples, families, and groups. Graduates can articulate and reflect upon their evolving personal framework of counselling practice and apply counselling processes intentionally to support the wellbeing of clients in a number of contexts relevant to their profession.
It is a practice-based program that includes a year of supervised clinical practice in the Psychology and Counselling Clinic.
Flexible delivery
This course is offered on a full-time basis over two years, or a part-time basis over three years. Classes are held in the evening.
Course requirements
There are requirements that you will need to meet as a student in this course. You will need to identify these requirements and ensure you allow sufficient time to meet them. Some of these requirements have associated costs.
Blue card: you will need a valid blue card to complete practical placements in this course.
Information is available from the Additional course requirements and costs website.
Work Integrated Learning
During this course you will be required to complete 200 hours of professional work experience.
Careers and outcomes
Graduates of the Master of Counselling are prepared for specialised positions in the counselling field and are also equipped to contribute to the development and practice of counselling in the professional environment.
Professional recognition
This course is accredited by the Australian Counselling Association.
Possible careers
- Child and family counsellor
- Counsellor
- Face to face counsellor
The Master of Counselling is offered on a full-time basis over two years or a part-time basis over three or four years. Units are delivered in intensive, evening and weekend format.
This course has an applied, experiential focus which features brief solution-focused and narrative therapies, family therapy, process-experiential therapy, group work and supervision. Student learning is supported by facilitated small group work which offers a strong practical component and students will use the purpose-built Psychology and Counselling Clinic for clinical practice.
- Additional entry requirements
- Yes
- Additional entry requirements
- Yes
- Course code
- PY12
- CRICOS code
- 096589E
-
- Kelvin Grove
-
- Kelvin Grove
- 2 years full-time
- 3 years part-time
- 2 years full-time
- January
- Entry into this course is competitive and applications will be accepted until 30 September for the January intake.
- January
- Entry into this course is competitive and applications will be accepted until 30 September for the January intake.
Entry requirements
You must have one of:
- A recognised bachelor degree in a relevant discipline with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 (on QUT's 7 point scale); or
- A recognised bachelor honours, graduate certificate, graduate diploma, master, or doctorate degree in any discipline area with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 (on QUT's 7 point scale); or
- A recognised bachelor degree in any discipline with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 (on QUT's 7 point scale) followed by at least three years full-time (or equivalent) work in a relevant field.
Relevant discipline/field
- Behavourial science, psychology
- Biomedicine, biomedical, medical science
- Counselling
- Education
- Human services
- Human resources management
- Health (eg nursing, medicine, public health etc)
- Leisure management
- Social science, sociology
- Social, youth etc work
Relevant work experience
Relevant work experience could include:
- The facilitation and management of ongoing helping relationships that employs intentional use of therapeutic conversation and a therapeutic relationship; and/or
- Volunteer or community work that is supervised/mentored within an ethical framework; and/or
- Work that provides opportunities and support for professional development and reflective helping practice, including the provision of feedback and training.
You will need to provide with your application, your CV plus statements of service for most recent relevant employment. If you have been employed for less than one year full-time in most relevant employment you will need to provide a statement of service from your previous relevant employer.
Additional entry requirements
You must:
- Provide a personal statement (PDF file, 186 KB)
- If shortlisted, attend in-person group interview to assess your suitability for the program and interpersonal skills in a counselling context.
Overseas qualifications
We will consider equivalent overseas qualifications for admissions purposes. If you have tertiary qualifications from countries where English is not the standard language of instruction, you must provide evidence of English language proficiency.
English language proficiency
We require students to demonstrate they can speak, write, read and comprehend academic English to a specified standard.
Our English proficiency requirements for this course are:
- IELTS (Academic): 7.0 or better overall with no subscore below 7.0
- PTE: 65 or better overall with no subscore below 65
- TOEFL (IBT): 98 or better overall with a writing subscore of 27 or better, listening and reading subscore of 24 or better, and speaking subscore of 23 or better
- Cambridge English Score: 185 or better overall with no subscore below 185
The test must have been completed within 2 years prior to the proposed course start month.
Application dates
- 1 July: applications open
- 30 September: final date to apply and provide all required supporting documentation. Applications or supporting documentation received after this date will not be considered.
Selection process
Suitable applicants are shortlisted or placed on a wait list for an interview based on the responses in their personal statement.
Shortlisted applicants will be contacted in mid-October to attend the in-person group interview at the Kelvin Grove campus in late October/early November. Wait listed applicants may be interviewed in late November/early December should places remain available.
Interviewed applicants will receive notification on the outcome of their application two weeks after their interview.
Applicants expecting to complete their studies by December
You must provide your academic record for all studies attempted up until semester 1 this year by 30 September. If your application is successful you will receive a conditional offer that will stipulate when your final results and course completion must be provided to confirm your place.
If you have summer/semester 3 (or equivalent) studies you will need to apply for entry next July. for the intake year after you complete your studies.
Minimum academic requirements
Entry requirements
You must have one of:
- A completed recognised bachelor degree in a relevant discipline with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 (on QUT's 7 point scale); or
- A completed Australian honours bachelor degree in any discipline with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 on QUT's 7-point scale; or
- A completed recognised graduate certificate, graduate diploma, master, or doctorate degree in any discipline area with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 (on QUT's 7 point scale); or
- A recognised bachelor degree in any discipline with a minimum grade point average (GPA) score of 4.00 (on QUT's 7 point scale) followed by at least three years full-time (or equivalent) work in a relevant field.
Relevant discipline/field
- Behavourial science, psychology
- Biomedicine, biomedical, medical science
- Counselling
- Education
- Human services
- Human resources management
- Health (eg nursing, medicine, public health etc)
- Leisure management
- Social science, sociology
- Social, youth etc work
Relevant work experience
Relevant work experience could include:
- The facilitation and management of ongoing helping relationships that employs intentional use of therapeutic conversation and a therapeutic relationship; and/or
- Volunteer or community work that is supervised/mentored within an ethical framework; and/or
- Work that provides opportunities and support for professional development and reflective helping practice, including the provision of feedback and training.
Additional entry requirements
You must:
- Provide a personal statement (PDF file, 186 KB)
- If shortlisted, attend in-person group interview to assess your suitability for the program and interpersonal skills in a counselling context. If you are not currently in Australia you will be invited to participate via Zoom.
Application dates
- 1 July: applications open
- 30 September: final date to apply and provide all required supporting documentation, including meeting the English Language course entry requirements. Applications, supporting documentation, and/or English Language test results received after this date will not be considered.
Selection process
Suitable applicants are shortlisted or placed on a wait list for an interview based on the responses in their personal statement.
Shortlisted applicants will be contacted in mid-October to attend the in-person group interview at the Kelvin Grove campus in late October/early November. Wait listed applicants may be interviewed in late November/early December should places remain available.
Interviewed applicants will receive notification on the outcome of their application two weeks after their interview.
Applicants expecting to complete their studies by December
You must provide your academic record for all studies attempted up until semester 1 this year by 30 September. If your application is successful you will receive a conditional offer that will stipulate when your final results and course completion must be provided to confirm your place.
If you have summer/semester 3 (or equivalent) studies you will need to apply for entry next July. for the intake year after you complete your studies.
Minimum English language requirements
We accept English language proficiency scores from the following tests. Tests must be taken no more than 2 years prior to the QUT course commencement.
English Test | Overall | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cambridge English Score
You must share your results with QUT through the Candidate Results Online website. |
185 | 185 | 185 | 185 | 185 |
IELTS Academic | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
TOEFL iBT | 98 | 24 | 24 | 27 | 23 |
Pearson PTE (Academic) | 65 | 65 | 65 | 65 | 65 |
Your actual fees may vary depending on which units you choose. We review fees annually, and they may be subject to increases.
2025 fees
2025: Available from July
2025 fees
2025: Available from July
2024 fees
2024: $17,900 per year full-time (72 credit points)
2024 fees
2024: $25,000 per year full-time (96 credit points)
Student services and amenities fees
You may need to pay student services and amenities (SA) fees as part of your course costs.
FEE-HELP: loans to help you pay for your course fees
You may not have to pay anything upfront if you're eligible for a FEE-HELP loan.
You can apply for scholarships to help you with study and living costs.
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