Valuable counselling placement opportunities are embedded within our graduate diploma or masters degrees, which will equip you with practical counselling experience and enable you to develop professional networks that will support your future employability. You'll be exposed to direct client contact, supervision, and non-contact counselling related activities to provide you well-rounded expertise.
A postgraduate qualification can be undertaken by students who have already completed an undergraduate degree or possess significant, demonstrable work experience. Postgraduate courses include graduate certificates, graduate diplomas, masters and PhDs, as well as specialist programs for industry professionals.
If you have a high degree of empathy and well-developed listening skills, a career in counselling could be the area for you. At Deakin, you will learn how to support clients of diverse backgrounds in-person, as well as via tele-counselling and online services. With growing demand for counselling services, you will be prepared for roles such as:
Our courses are also an opportunity for those wanting to develop counselling expertise to support their current role and grow employment opportunities. Prepare to expand your expertise and provide additional forms of care if you're working in careers from teaching to occupational therapy, social work and beyond.
Counsellors are projected to have 3,500 new jobs available to them by 2026 with the projected employment growth to grow by 14.2%***, offering graduates a bright future.
The Graduate Certificate of Counselling and Graduate Diploma of Counselling can be studied flexibly and at your own pace through our premium online learning platform. You can begin with the graduate certificate and then progress to the graduate diploma and the masters, which is offered on campus at Burwood.
Our Graduate Diploma of Counselling is accredited by the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), while we are seeking accreditation for the Master of Counselling. While accreditation isn’t needed to work as a counsellor in Australia, employment opportunities can increase if you have membership of the ACA.
Our courses place a strong emphasis on practical learning, with ample opportunities for students to apply their skills in real-world settings through supervised practicum placements. As a result, our graduates are well-prepared to hit the ground running in counselling roles, with the confidence and skills needed to make a real difference in the lives of their clients.
Carol Sandiford and Mayumi Purvis
Course directors, Master of Counselling
Learn to effectively and compassionately support people with mental health and developmental issues. There's growing demand for mental health professionals to work in a variety of contexts, supporting people with relationship, social, educational, occupational and other life challenges.
Our counselling courses are designed to ensure you are ready to work as a counsellor in a range of settings. Counselling is an ideal career for those wanting to provide support to people in the specific context of therapy, whether that be in-person or via teleconference. Accreditation isn't a compulsory requirement for graduates working as counsellors in Australia.
A psychologist can work in similar settings to a counsellor, and can also work in other areas. To become a registered psychologist, you need to complete a four-year undergraduate psychology sequence, as well as two years of postgraduate study in psychology, all accredited by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council. Psychologists must be registered with the Psychology Board of Australia and can specialise in areas such as clinical psychology, counselling psychology, forensic psychology and organisational psychology.
*2019 Student Experience Survey, based on undergraduate students
**Australian Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards, 2017, 2018, 2019 winner for most popular career service in Australia
#ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities, 2022
^Australian Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards, 2017, 2018, 2019 winner
~According to the Voice Project IT Service Quality Support Benchmark Survey
^^Australian Graduate Survey 2010–2015, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2016–2019 (GOS), Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)
***2021 Industry and occupation trends over the five years to November 2026, Jobs and Skills Australia
Choose an area that you're interested in and learn how Deakin's extensive range of study options and experiences can help turn your dreams into reality.
