DISTANCE DEGREES
validated by Calamus International University
B.A., M.A. , Doctorate
in Psychology / Counselling Psychology
This leaflet should be read together with
the Calamus general prospectus (catalogue) and Course Unit List.
Calamus International University degrees are not UK degrees and do
not have government accreditation.
You can apply and enrol at any time as we do
not adhere to a fixed academic year.
Subject areas
Your syllabus will be built around the course
units we offer covering general psychology, counselling (counseling)
psychology, psychotherapy, counselling skills, abnormal psychology,
stress management, transpersonal psychology, developmental
psychology, business psychology, positive psychology, hypnotherapy
and other areas plus electives (optional choices) in energy
psychology, spirituality, life coaching and other fields.
All the course units you will take are
subject to individual negotiation according to your interests and
the subjects covered by your previous credit. The degree plan can include some independent study, and
additional units can be created (subject to approval) in your areas
of interest.
Majors available for psychology degrees
The major or concentration of your degree will
depend on the core focus of your studies. At Bachelor’s level the
major we usually offer is Counselling Psychology since most of our
students are from the helping and therapeutic professions.
Counselling Psychology includes the study of psychotherapy.
At Master’s level the major can be
Psychology, Counselling Psychology, Transpersonal Psychology or
other majors subject to approval.
At Psy.D. level it is possible for the
degree certificate to cite the area of concentration of studies,
such as:
Psy.D. in Counselling Psychology
Psy.D. in Counselling and Psychotherapy
Psy.D. in Transpersonal Psychology
Psy.D. in Psychology of …
BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN COUNSELLING
PSYCHOLOGY
Our Bachelor’s degree – awarded by Calamus
International University - is by distance learning only, and is an
accelerated programme that might be compared to second-year or
third-year entry to a conventional full-time degree. It is meant
for persons who can offer considerable credit towards a degree
comprising professional qualifications and/or general credit.
General credit may come from any field and can include university
credits, further education diplomas, associate or foundation
degrees, skilled work experience, and other documentable skilled
experience which may have accrued via pastimes, sports, military
service, charity or voluntary work, etc. This way of building up a
degree is similar to the well-established American “Liberal Arts”
system in which students take general courses and specialise in
their final year(s). The typical accelerated-entry Bachelor's
degree will take 15 to 18 months to complete.
The final phase of the degree is made up by
taking Calamus taught distance learning units and a project is
usually required, though there are provisions for waiving the
project and requiring taught units only. Ongoing credit can also
be given for achievements after enrolment related to psychology, or
for trainings undertaken whilst enrolled (for example a
hypnotherapy certification or a personal growth workshop).
If you do not have sufficient credit for an
accelerated Bachelor’s degree it may be possible to provide a full
programme in Psychology; however you must expect this to take longer
(possibly 3 years) and the cost will be more.
Calamus specialises in counselling psychology.
This is a broad field which can include the study of counselling,
psychotherapy, and hypnotherapy. Students will normally be asked to
take a comprehensive general psychology course and topics in various
additional areas of psychology. Students may also take electives
from other fields from our Course Unit List.
There are no core courses apart from the
general introductory psychology module. Instead, a unique syllabus
is negotiated for you according to your interests and needs, drawing
from the many topics we offer. You are welcome to enquire before
you enrol if you wish to know whether we can provide instruction in
any areas of psychology of special concern to you.
Our psychology degrees are academic courses and
they are not professional trainings in counselling or
psychotherapy. Credit may be given for past or ongoing professional
training subject for approval.
What work can
you get in the UK?
Even if you have a degree in psychology from a
mainstream UK university, jobs in psychology are scarce as
competition is severe and a Master’s degree plus additional training
is often required. To be a “Chartered Psychologist” in the UK, you
must have a government-accredited degree, and Calamus does not
prepare you for that path. However, a knowledge of psychology can
be useful in many fields especially counselling and psychotherapy,
hypnotherapy, NLP, life coaching, business consulting, advertising
and sales, management training, personal growth and
self-development, human resources, child care, caring, stress
management, adult education, auxiliary mental health work and other
careers. These careers may require you to obtain additional
qualifications, though a psychology degree is not essential. Many
people in the UK practise some form of counselling, coaching or
psychotherapy without a psychology degree, and desire such a degree
to supplement their professional qualifications. Many people wish
to study psychology for personal interest and have quite different
occupations.
Range of
topics offered (for Bachelor’s and above)
As well as coverage of general, abnormal and
child psychology, students may draw from available course units in
counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, organizational behaviour/psychology
in the workplace, transpersonal psychology, NLP, life coaching,
personal development, parapsychology, and other areas of personal
growth plus approved electives in any field from the course unit
list. Special topics not available may be studied by personal study
and challenge essay.
Psychology degrees for students who have
degrees in other subjects
Calamus is inspired by American distance
education, and American universities frequently allow a complete
change in major at postgraduate level. We follow this practice and
so, if you have a bachelor’s degree in another field, it is possible
to go on to a Master’s degree in psychology. The only provision is
that enough psychology is studied in your new degree programme, and
we provide an extensive introductory/revision module which can be
taken at any level if you are new to the subject or have
insufficient relevant credit.
If you already have a Bachelor’s but not in
psychology, it will normally be possible for you to start with a CIU
MA programme in Psychology.
For further advice please send your full
curriculum vitae or resume with complete details of all previous
training and relevant experience, especially of counselling,
therapies, personal growth, etc.
Master’s and Doctoral degrees
Please also see our prospectus for relevant
Master’s degrees. Similar to Bachelor’s degrees, an individual
syllabus is negotiated for Master’s and Doctoral levels depending on
the student’s interests.
We also have the following taught doctorates:
Psy.D. - Doctor of Psychology
DCH (Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy) – for
qualified hypnotherapists.
DAH (Doctor of Analytical Hypnotherapy) and DTH
(Doctor of Transpersonal Hypnotherapy) – these are post-doctoral
degrees requiring a PsyD, PhD, DCH or equivalent.
D.H.Sc. (Doctor of Holistic Sciences) This
professional doctorate is for those who wish to combine a number of
fields in a taught doctoral programme, such as complementary health
studies, hypnotherapy, NLP, counselling, metaphysics,
parapsychology, etc. It is not a practitioner qualification in
itself, and applicants should normally be qualified in a relevant
profession or field of work.
We can also offer Ph.D. research degrees. We
follow the UK/European pattern of PhD study which is by individual
research and dissertation (there are normally no taught courses for
the Ph.D.). If you have an ongoing major project (such as an
unpublished book or a book in progress), this may be considered in
lieu of a dissertation.
If you have an ABD (all but dissertation) in
Psychology from an American or similar university, we will consider
you as a transfer student to CIU to finish your Ph.D. by
independent study and dissertation. People who have had to
interrupt or their doctoral studies due to college closure or
personal reasons can now find a means of finally earning a doctorate
by distance learning through the CIU transfer programme.
Combined degrees
It is possible to save tuition fees by
registering for a combined Bachelor’s/Master’s or
Bachelor’s/Doctorate or a combined Master’s/Doctorate.
We can only register you for a combined
Bachelor’s/Master’s or Bachelor’s/Psy.D. if you already have
considerable transferable credit towards a Bachelor’s degree (see
above). Otherwise, you will have to register for the Bachelor’s
degree alone in the first instance. We will also need to see
examples of your written work to be satisfied with your study skills
and academic writing.
With dual registration, the first degree may be
awarded after a relatively short time once the minimum amount of
work to complete the degree has been completed.
Further advice
This is an abbreviated brochure
and further advice is available on enquiry. For best advice, please
send us a copy of your curriculum vitae or resume with details of
all relevant trainings you have done.
General details
To see our prospectus and course
unit list, and also to download an application form, please go to
www.unicalamus.org/downloads.htm
To see our tuition fees on-line
please go to
www.unicalmus.org/tuition.htm
If you have any
queries please contact us, preferably by email on
info@unicalamus.org
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