- Core theory and professional concepts relating to foundations & contemporary theories of grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to foundations & contemporary theories of grief
- Freudian lens: Places Freud's Mourning and Melancholia within the history of grief theory, comparing the work of mourning with contemporary dual process and meaning-reconstruction models.
- Lacanian lens: Introduces Lacan's reading of mourning as a response to a hole opened in the Real, which the bereaved subject attempts to surround with signifiers, memories and rituals.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
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Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief
A live-online specialist programme in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
Advanced Professional Diploma
Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief
A live-online specialist programme in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
At a Glance
Course Details
€645Course Fee
€322.50Deposit
25 hrsLive Zoom Teaching
2,400 hrsSelf-Directed Learning
Overview
Course Description
The Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief is a specialist live-online programme designed for counsellors, psychotherapists, healthcare workers, social-care practitioners, students and others supporting bereaved people. It develops a structured and professionally bounded understanding of bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support. The programme combines conceptual teaching, clinical reflection, applied skills, case discussion and ethical decision-making so that learners can connect theory with real-world therapeutic and helping contexts.
Teaching begins by establishing the principal concepts and language used in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support. Learners examine how biological, psychological, relational, social and cultural influences shape presentation and recovery. The course then moves progressively into assessment, formulation, communication and intervention, with careful attention to what falls within the learner’s role and when specialist referral, multidisciplinary consultation or medical input is required.
A psychodynamic strand runs throughout the programme. Freudian concepts such as unconscious conflict, defence, repetition, transference and countertransference are used to deepen formulation, while Lacanian ideas concerning language, desire, the symbolic order and the subject’s relationship to the Other are introduced where they illuminate the course theme. These perspectives are integrated alongside contemporary evidence-informed approaches rather than presented as stand-alone doctrine.
Practical application is central. Learners participate in structured skills practice, case formulation, reflective exercises and scenario work designed to strengthen professional judgement. The programme emphasises relational safety, informed consent, scope of competence, cultural humility, safeguarding awareness, appropriate boundaries and the use of supervision. Learners are encouraged to notice their own emotional responses, assumptions and countertransference so that self-awareness becomes part of safe practice.
The live-online format supports direct lecturer engagement and peer discussion while Moodle provides structured resources for independent learning, revision and assessment preparation. The wider learning hours are used for reading, reflective practice, skills rehearsal and engagement with supplementary academic material. The overall design therefore combines live teaching with disciplined self-directed study rather than treating online delivery as passive distance learning.
By completion, learners should be able to discuss bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support with greater conceptual clarity, formulate relevant presentations using an integrated framework, communicate safely and respectfully, and apply course-specific skills within appropriate professional boundaries. The qualification is intended to strengthen continuing professional development and reflective practice; it does not replace statutory, medical, diagnostic or specialist training where those functions are legally or professionally restricted.
Why Choose This Course
Course Highlights
- Comprehensive specialist training in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
- Live-online lecturer-led delivery with real-time discussion and applied learning.
- Course-specific assessment, formulation and intervention skills.
- Integration of contemporary evidence-informed approaches with reflective practice.
- Freudian concepts including unconscious conflict, defence, repetition and transference.
- Lacanian perspectives on language, desire, the symbolic order and the Other where relevant.
- Strong emphasis on ethics, scope of competence, safeguarding and professional boundaries.
- Applied case discussion, scenario work and structured skills practice.
- Moodle-supported self-directed reading, revision and assessment preparation.
- Attention to attachment, development, trauma and relational processes where relevant.
- Focus on supervision, practitioner self-awareness and countertransference.
- Final integration of learning into safe, reflective and professionally appropriate practice.
What You Will Achieve
Learning Outcomes
- Explain key theories, language and professional concepts relevant to bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
- Analyse presentations using integrated biological, psychological, relational and social perspectives.
- Apply structured assessment and formulation principles within the limits of the learner’s role.
- Use clear, respectful and non-stigmatising professional communication.
- Recognise indicators requiring referral, safeguarding action, medical review or multidisciplinary input.
- Integrate appropriate evidence-informed interventions with relational and reflective practice.
- Use Freudian concepts to consider unconscious conflict, defence, repetition and transference.
- Use selected Lacanian concepts to deepen understanding of language, desire and subjectivity where appropriate.
- Reflect on countertransference, assumptions and the practitioner’s use of self.
- Maintain ethical boundaries, confidentiality, informed consent and scope of competence.
- Use supervision and reflective practice to support safe and sustainable professional work.
- Integrate course learning into an ethically bounded plan for continuing professional development.
Good to Know
Additional Information
This programme provides a broad professional foundation in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support. It should be applied within each learner’s existing role, competence, training background and ethical responsibilities. Where a presentation involves acute risk, safeguarding, complex medical questions, severe dissociation, statutory intervention or specialist assessment, learners are expected to follow appropriate referral and escalation pathways rather than practise beyond competence.
Live sessions are lecturer-led and may include demonstrations, reflective work, case discussion, skills rehearsal and breakout-room activities. Students are expected to participate actively and to maintain confidentiality when discussing practice material. Any case material brought to class should be sufficiently anonymised. The College may provide recordings of appropriate teaching segments for revision, while routine breakout rooms are not normally recorded.
Students are expected to engage consistently with Moodle, directed reading and assessment preparation. Professional learning in counselling and psychotherapy can evoke personal material; learners should use supervision, personal therapy or other appropriate supports where relevant. ICPS College also expects respectful communication, dignity, inclusivity, a non-judgemental attitude and adherence to College policies, procedures and codes of conduct throughout the programme.
Completion of the Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief does not in itself confer a protected professional title or authority to diagnose, prescribe, provide statutory assessment or undertake specialist interventions outside the learner’s existing competence. Students seeking clarification about accreditation, attendance, assessment, progression or professional scope should contact the Registry Office at sheila@icps.ie.
Programme Structure
Course Curriculum — Ten Modules
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to attachment, separation & mourning
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to attachment, separation & mourning
- Freudian lens: Considers Freud's later view that the ego is partly a precipitate of abandoned object attachments, offering a perspective on how the lost person may live on within the bereaved.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on separation as a constitutive experience for the speaking subject, and on how the death of a loved one may revive earlier experiences of loss and lack.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to types of loss & disenfranchised grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to types of loss & disenfranchised grief
- Freudian lens: Considers losses beyond death, including ideals, roles and relationships, drawing on Freud's recognition that mourning can follow the loss of an abstraction such as liberty or homeland.
- Lacanian lens: Explores disenfranchised grief as loss that lacks a place in the shared Symbolic, where recognition from the Other is withheld and mourning receives little social support.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to assessment, risk & grief formulation
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to assessment, risk & grief formulation
- Freudian lens: Considers Freud's distinction between mourning and melancholia as a reflective perspective in formulation, while relying on validated assessment and risk procedures for all safety decisions.
- Lacanian lens: Attends to how the bereaved person speaks of the deceased and of themselves, noting signifiers that suggest identification with the lost person or difficulty in symbolising the loss.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to therapeutic presence & grief counselling skills
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to therapeutic presence & grief counselling skills
- Freudian lens: Considers how transference may cast the counsellor in the role of the lost person or another significant figure, and how evenly suspended attention supports patient grief work.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on the value of allowing the bereaved to speak at length without premature consolation, so that the loss can be gradually articulated in their own words.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to prolonged and complicated grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to prolonged and complicated grief
- Freudian lens: Draws on Freud's account of melancholia, ambivalence and identification with the lost object as theoretical perspectives on grief that remains stuck or turns into self-reproach.
- Lacanian lens: Considers prolonged grief as a difficulty in giving the dead a symbolic place, where the lost person may remain too present or the subject comes to identify with the lost object.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to traumatic, sudden & unexpected loss
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to traumatic, sudden & unexpected loss
- Freudian lens: Considers how traumatic bereavement may combine mourning with the effects of fright and repetition, with intrusive memories returning before the loss itself can be integrated.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on sudden loss as an irruption of the Real that disrupts the subject's frame of meaning, and on the gradual, careful work of finding words for what happened.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to culture, spirituality, meaning & ritual
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to culture, spirituality, meaning & ritual
- Freudian lens: Considers Freud's writings on the ambivalence expressed in mourning rituals as a historical perspective, while respecting the diversity of religious, cultural and personal practices around death.
- Lacanian lens: Explores ritual as a symbolic act that marks the death within a shared order, and reflects on what may happen to mourning when rituals are disrupted or unavailable.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to children, families & systemic grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to children, families & systemic grief
- Freudian lens: Considers how children may express grief through play and behaviour, and how unresolved parental mourning may be transmitted across generations within the family.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on the place the deceased occupied in the family's symbolic structure, and on how surviving members may be drawn to fill or to avoid that empty place.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to integration, endings, self-care & supervision
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to integration, endings, self-care & supervision
- Freudian lens: Considers how therapeutic endings may revive the experience of loss for both client and counsellor, and how supervision helps to hold countertransference in grief work.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on the ending of therapy as a symbolic act that can be spoken about and marked, offering an experience of separation that differs from the loss that brought the client.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
Assessment Breakdown
Assessment & Course Completion
Your overall course mark is made up of four assessment components, totalling 100%.
- Class Attendance — 10%: A minimum of 80% attendance at live online classes is required. Attendance is recorded automatically through Zoom and reconciled by the Registry.
- Skills Assessment — 40%: A demonstrated skills assessment is observed by the lecturer. This component includes Moodle Activity & Lecture Viewing — Mandatory: engagement is evidenced through Moodle activity logs, including lecture recordings viewed in full, resources accessed and module tasks completed. A minimum pass of 80% in the skills assessment is required to receive the course award. Learners who do not reach 80% at the first attempt will be offered a resubmission opportunity.
- Weekly Case Study Pieces — 20%: One case is followed throughout Modules 1 to 10. A 400-word case study piece is submitted for Case Pieces 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. These six pieces together account for 20% of the overall mark.
- Final Case Study — 30%: A 2,000-word final case study that develops the same case, assessed against the published marking rubric on Moodle.
Total Percentage Achievable: 100%. The minimum attendance requirement and the mandatory Moodle activity and lecture viewing must also be met.
Credits & Learning Hours
- Live online teaching: 2.5 hours weekly for 10 weeks — 25 hours and 25 CPD credits
- Ten modules, each carrying 9.5 credits
- 240 hours of self-directed learning per module — 2,400 hours
- Total learning hours: 2,425
- Total award: 120 credits
Live Online Attendance & Self-Directed Learning
Students are required to attend 25 hours of live online lecturer-led Zoom sessions. The normal attendance requirement is 80%, meaning students may normally miss only two classes except where approved extenuating circumstances apply. The wider independent-learning component includes extended reading, revision, applied reflection, skills practice, lecture notes, Moodle resources and supplementary academic materials.
Live Delivery
Zoom Delivery
All live online classes are delivered via ICPS College's secure enterprise Zoom platform, providing a stable, professional and confidential environment for lecturer-led teaching, discussion and skills practice. Students are expected to engage fully with live sessions, including breakout room discussions and applied skills practice, to gain the maximum benefit from the programme.
Given the personal and reflective nature of some of the material covered in this course, students are encouraged to attend live sessions from a private, confidential space and to take breaks or seek support where needed. Students experiencing technical difficulties should contact the College promptly so that alternative arrangements can be made where possible.
Learning Platform
Moodle LMS
Students are provided with access to the College's Moodle Learning Management System, where lecture notes, reading materials, module resources and assessment guidance are made available throughout the course. The Moodle LMS supports independent study and allows students to revisit key concepts, review recorded material where applicable, and prepare thoroughly for assessment.
Students are expected to engage regularly with the Moodle LMS as part of their self-directed learning hours. The platform is updated throughout the course to reflect the content covered in live sessions and to support consistent, structured academic progression.
Professional Accreditation & Important Information
Professional pathway and membership options may be available through the Irish Counselling, Psychotherapy & Allied Healthcare Professionals Association (ICPHAA) and recognised continuing-professional-development structures, subject to the current criteria of the relevant body. Students should confirm any specific pathway requirements with the lecturer, course leader or Registry Office.
By enrolling, students agree to comply with ICPS College policies, procedures and codes of conduct. Official course/cohort WhatsApp groups are College-moderated. Unofficial or unmoderated course/cohort groups should not be created for College-related communication without prior College knowledge and consent. These arrangements support student welfare, confidentiality, professional boundaries and protection from bullying, harassment, intimidation, exclusion and reputational harm.
Advanced Professional Diploma
Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief
A live-online specialist programme in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
At a Glance
Course Details
€645Course Fee
€322.50Deposit
25 hrsLive Zoom Teaching
2,400 hrsSelf-Directed Learning
Overview
Course Description
The Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief is a specialist live-online programme designed for counsellors, psychotherapists, healthcare workers, social-care practitioners, students and others supporting bereaved people. It develops a structured and professionally bounded understanding of bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support. The programme combines conceptual teaching, clinical reflection, applied skills, case discussion and ethical decision-making so that learners can connect theory with real-world therapeutic and helping contexts.
Teaching begins by establishing the principal concepts and language used in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support. Learners examine how biological, psychological, relational, social and cultural influences shape presentation and recovery. The course then moves progressively into assessment, formulation, communication and intervention, with careful attention to what falls within the learner’s role and when specialist referral, multidisciplinary consultation or medical input is required.
A psychodynamic strand runs throughout the programme. Freudian concepts such as unconscious conflict, defence, repetition, transference and countertransference are used to deepen formulation, while Lacanian ideas concerning language, desire, the symbolic order and the subject’s relationship to the Other are introduced where they illuminate the course theme. These perspectives are integrated alongside contemporary evidence-informed approaches rather than presented as stand-alone doctrine.
Practical application is central. Learners participate in structured skills practice, case formulation, reflective exercises and scenario work designed to strengthen professional judgement. The programme emphasises relational safety, informed consent, scope of competence, cultural humility, safeguarding awareness, appropriate boundaries and the use of supervision. Learners are encouraged to notice their own emotional responses, assumptions and countertransference so that self-awareness becomes part of safe practice.
The live-online format supports direct lecturer engagement and peer discussion while Moodle provides structured resources for independent learning, revision and assessment preparation. The wider learning hours are used for reading, reflective practice, skills rehearsal and engagement with supplementary academic material. The overall design therefore combines live teaching with disciplined self-directed study rather than treating online delivery as passive distance learning.
By completion, learners should be able to discuss bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support with greater conceptual clarity, formulate relevant presentations using an integrated framework, communicate safely and respectfully, and apply course-specific skills within appropriate professional boundaries. The qualification is intended to strengthen continuing professional development and reflective practice; it does not replace statutory, medical, diagnostic or specialist training where those functions are legally or professionally restricted.
Why Choose This Course
Course Highlights
- Comprehensive specialist training in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
- Live-online lecturer-led delivery with real-time discussion and applied learning.
- Course-specific assessment, formulation and intervention skills.
- Integration of contemporary evidence-informed approaches with reflective practice.
- Freudian concepts including unconscious conflict, defence, repetition and transference.
- Lacanian perspectives on language, desire, the symbolic order and the Other where relevant.
- Strong emphasis on ethics, scope of competence, safeguarding and professional boundaries.
- Applied case discussion, scenario work and structured skills practice.
- Moodle-supported self-directed reading, revision and assessment preparation.
- Attention to attachment, development, trauma and relational processes where relevant.
- Focus on supervision, practitioner self-awareness and countertransference.
- Final integration of learning into safe, reflective and professionally appropriate practice.
What You Will Achieve
Learning Outcomes
- Explain key theories, language and professional concepts relevant to bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support.
- Analyse presentations using integrated biological, psychological, relational and social perspectives.
- Apply structured assessment and formulation principles within the limits of the learner’s role.
- Use clear, respectful and non-stigmatising professional communication.
- Recognise indicators requiring referral, safeguarding action, medical review or multidisciplinary input.
- Integrate appropriate evidence-informed interventions with relational and reflective practice.
- Use Freudian concepts to consider unconscious conflict, defence, repetition and transference.
- Use selected Lacanian concepts to deepen understanding of language, desire and subjectivity where appropriate.
- Reflect on countertransference, assumptions and the practitioner’s use of self.
- Maintain ethical boundaries, confidentiality, informed consent and scope of competence.
- Use supervision and reflective practice to support safe and sustainable professional work.
- Integrate course learning into an ethically bounded plan for continuing professional development.
Good to Know
Additional Information
This programme provides a broad professional foundation in bereavement, grief, loss, mourning and therapeutic support. It should be applied within each learner’s existing role, competence, training background and ethical responsibilities. Where a presentation involves acute risk, safeguarding, complex medical questions, severe dissociation, statutory intervention or specialist assessment, learners are expected to follow appropriate referral and escalation pathways rather than practise beyond competence.
Live sessions are lecturer-led and may include demonstrations, reflective work, case discussion, skills rehearsal and breakout-room activities. Students are expected to participate actively and to maintain confidentiality when discussing practice material. Any case material brought to class should be sufficiently anonymised. The College may provide recordings of appropriate teaching segments for revision, while routine breakout rooms are not normally recorded.
Students are expected to engage consistently with Moodle, directed reading and assessment preparation. Professional learning in counselling and psychotherapy can evoke personal material; learners should use supervision, personal therapy or other appropriate supports where relevant. ICPS College also expects respectful communication, dignity, inclusivity, a non-judgemental attitude and adherence to College policies, procedures and codes of conduct throughout the programme.
Completion of the Advanced Professional Diploma in Bereavement, Loss & Grief does not in itself confer a protected professional title or authority to diagnose, prescribe, provide statutory assessment or undertake specialist interventions outside the learner’s existing competence. Students seeking clarification about accreditation, attendance, assessment, progression or professional scope should contact the Registry Office at sheila@icps.ie.
Programme Structure
Course Curriculum — Ten Modules
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to foundations & contemporary theories of grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to foundations & contemporary theories of grief
- Freudian lens: Places Freud's Mourning and Melancholia within the history of grief theory, comparing the work of mourning with contemporary dual process and meaning-reconstruction models.
- Lacanian lens: Introduces Lacan's reading of mourning as a response to a hole opened in the Real, which the bereaved subject attempts to surround with signifiers, memories and rituals.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to attachment, separation & mourning
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to attachment, separation & mourning
- Freudian lens: Considers Freud's later view that the ego is partly a precipitate of abandoned object attachments, offering a perspective on how the lost person may live on within the bereaved.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on separation as a constitutive experience for the speaking subject, and on how the death of a loved one may revive earlier experiences of loss and lack.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to types of loss & disenfranchised grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to types of loss & disenfranchised grief
- Freudian lens: Considers losses beyond death, including ideals, roles and relationships, drawing on Freud's recognition that mourning can follow the loss of an abstraction such as liberty or homeland.
- Lacanian lens: Explores disenfranchised grief as loss that lacks a place in the shared Symbolic, where recognition from the Other is withheld and mourning receives little social support.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to assessment, risk & grief formulation
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to assessment, risk & grief formulation
- Freudian lens: Considers Freud's distinction between mourning and melancholia as a reflective perspective in formulation, while relying on validated assessment and risk procedures for all safety decisions.
- Lacanian lens: Attends to how the bereaved person speaks of the deceased and of themselves, noting signifiers that suggest identification with the lost person or difficulty in symbolising the loss.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to therapeutic presence & grief counselling skills
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to therapeutic presence & grief counselling skills
- Freudian lens: Considers how transference may cast the counsellor in the role of the lost person or another significant figure, and how evenly suspended attention supports patient grief work.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on the value of allowing the bereaved to speak at length without premature consolation, so that the loss can be gradually articulated in their own words.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to prolonged and complicated grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to prolonged and complicated grief
- Freudian lens: Draws on Freud's account of melancholia, ambivalence and identification with the lost object as theoretical perspectives on grief that remains stuck or turns into self-reproach.
- Lacanian lens: Considers prolonged grief as a difficulty in giving the dead a symbolic place, where the lost person may remain too present or the subject comes to identify with the lost object.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to traumatic, sudden & unexpected loss
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to traumatic, sudden & unexpected loss
- Freudian lens: Considers how traumatic bereavement may combine mourning with the effects of fright and repetition, with intrusive memories returning before the loss itself can be integrated.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on sudden loss as an irruption of the Real that disrupts the subject's frame of meaning, and on the gradual, careful work of finding words for what happened.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to culture, spirituality, meaning & ritual
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to culture, spirituality, meaning & ritual
- Freudian lens: Considers Freud's writings on the ambivalence expressed in mourning rituals as a historical perspective, while respecting the diversity of religious, cultural and personal practices around death.
- Lacanian lens: Explores ritual as a symbolic act that marks the death within a shared order, and reflects on what may happen to mourning when rituals are disrupted or unavailable.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to children, families & systemic grief
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to children, families & systemic grief
- Freudian lens: Considers how children may express grief through play and behaviour, and how unresolved parental mourning may be transmitted across generations within the family.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on the place the deceased occupied in the family's symbolic structure, and on how surviving members may be drawn to fill or to avoid that empty place.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
- Core theory and professional concepts relating to integration, endings, self-care & supervision
- Course-specific assessment, formulation or application linked to integration, endings, self-care & supervision
- Freudian lens: Considers how therapeutic endings may revive the experience of loss for both client and counsellor, and how supervision helps to hold countertransference in grief work.
- Lacanian lens: Reflects on the ending of therapy as a symbolic act that can be spoken about and marked, offering an experience of separation that differs from the loss that brought the client.
- Applied case discussion, reflective exercise or skills practice
Assessment Breakdown
Assessment & Course Completion
Your overall mark is made up of four components, totalling 100%.
- Class Attendance — 10%: A minimum of 80% attendance at live online classes is required, recorded through Zoom.
- Fishbowl Skills Assessment — 30%: A live, observed session assessed by your lecturer. A minimum of 80% is required for the award, and a resubmission opportunity is offered.
- Case Histories 1–5 — 20%: Five linked case histories of 500 words each (4% each), following one client/patient from Module 5 to Module 10.
- Case History 6 — 40%: A 3,000-word full case formulation that brings your earlier case histories together.
Each written case history requires 60% to pass and is marked against the published rubric on Moodle. This grading is the same across all ICPS College Advanced Professional Diplomas.
Credits & Learning Hours
- Live online teaching: 2.5 hours weekly for 10 weeks — 25 hours and 120 CPD Credits
- Ten modules, each carrying 9.5 credits
- 240 hours of self-directed learning per module — 2,400 hours
- Total learning hours: 2,425
- Total award: 120 credits
Live Online Attendance & Self-Directed Learning
Students are required to attend 25 hours of live online lecturer-led Zoom sessions. The normal attendance requirement is 80%, meaning students may normally miss only two classes except where approved extenuating circumstances apply. The wider independent-learning component includes extended reading, revision, applied reflection, skills practice, lecture notes, Moodle resources and supplementary academic materials.
Live Delivery
Zoom Delivery
All live online classes are delivered via ICPS College's secure enterprise Zoom platform, providing a stable, professional and confidential environment for lecturer-led teaching, discussion and skills practice. Students are expected to engage fully with live sessions, including breakout room discussions and applied skills practice, to gain the maximum benefit from the programme.
Given the personal and reflective nature of some of the material covered in this course, students are encouraged to attend live sessions from a private, confidential space and to take breaks or seek support where needed. Students experiencing technical difficulties should contact the College promptly so that alternative arrangements can be made where possible.
Learning Platform
Moodle LMS
Students are provided with access to the College's Moodle Learning Management System, where lecture notes, reading materials, module resources and assessment guidance are made available throughout the course. The Moodle LMS supports independent study and allows students to revisit key concepts, review recorded material where applicable, and prepare thoroughly for assessment.
Students are expected to engage regularly with the Moodle LMS as part of their self-directed learning hours. The platform is updated throughout the course to reflect the content covered in live sessions and to support consistent, structured academic progression.
Professional Accreditation & Important Information
Professional pathway and membership options may be available through the Irish Counselling, Psychotherapy & Allied Healthcare Professionals Association (ICPHAA) and recognised continuing-professional-development structures, subject to the current criteria of the relevant body. Students should confirm any specific pathway requirements with the lecturer, course leader or Registry Office.
By enrolling, students agree to comply with ICPS College policies, procedures and codes of conduct. Official course/cohort WhatsApp groups are College-moderated. Unofficial or unmoderated course/cohort groups should not be created for College-related communication without prior College knowledge and consent. These arrangements support student welfare, confidentiality, professional boundaries and protection from bullying, harassment, intimidation, exclusion and reputational harm.
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