Why Choose Wesley Institute?
Employability
With a program and staff reflecting Wesley Institute’s commitment to and reputation for academic excellence, the Graduate Diploma of Counselling and the Master of Counselling prepare you to work in a variety of professional settings. We currently have graduates employed in a variety of settings where an understanding of the complexity and diversity of human beings and their problems is needed, including:
- Private counselling practices
- Primary and secondary schools
- Government agencies
- Non-governmental organisations
- Alcohol and drug abuse treatment centres
- Disability services
- Churches and church-based counselling centres
Flexibility
- Flexible admission—Wesley Institute accepts graduate program applicants twice per year, allowing you to enter the program when it best suits you.
- Flexible schedules—Course completion time frames range from one to four years. Students can select the pace that’s right for them.
- Flexible workload—An optimal balance of traditional classroom experiences and field placement experiences can be designed around your busy life and active schedule.
- Flexible access—Small class sizes ensure personalized attention and meaningful interaction with lecturers and classmates both in and out of the classroom.
Experience
All courses are taught by experienced lecturers—counselors and psychologists with national recognition and standing in professional guilds who will take time to mentor you in your education, personal development and career. In addition to benefiting from their experience and standing, we find that our students value gaining access to the professional networks and referral bases that our lecturers routinely bring to the educational experience.
Rigour
Wesley Institute’s Counselling curriculum has been bench-marked against the highest international standards, including those of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) in the United States. The curriculum incorporates rigorous evidence-based approaches to counsellor education that have resulted in increased demand for our students, both in field placements and in employment settings after graduation.
Depth
Wesley Institute’s Counselling curriculum incorporates a thorough commitment to self-awareness and personal development. Students often have strong emotional reactions to the content of counselling courses or skill-development experiences. It is important to acknowledge these reactions and in some cases to process them with a trained professional counsellor. Accordingly, we ensure that free counselling services are available on site for all students who want them. In addition, ten sessions of personal counselling are provided free of charge for all students preparing to enter practicum experiences.
Spirituality and Virtue
While Wesley Institute’s Graduate Diploma of Counselling and Master of Counselling are bench-marked on the highest international and evidence-based standards, our program is also consistent with international recognition of spirituality as an important variable in the lives of counsellors and clients. In addition, we recognise the distinctive importance of four essential virtues for anyone in the helping professions: prudence (a habitual tendency to proceed with caution in the face of complexity and ambiguity); integrity (internal consistency and wholeness in one’s contact with self and others); respectfulness (the ability to listen deeply to the voices of those who are different from oneself); and benevolence (a habitual tendency to show compassionate regard for others’ welfare)*. We want our graduates to leave Wesley Institute with these virtues firmly in place and fully incorporated into their professional identity. In that regard, a first-year subject, Professional Ethics and Orientation, not only looks at ethical counselling practice but at the overall business and professional development plan of the counselling student.
*Meara, N., Schmidt, L., & Day, J. (1996). A foundation for ethical decisions, policies and character. Counseling Psychologist, 24, 4-77.
Sophia
Howarth
