You need to do your best to provide a strong application including choosing the referees who can best attest to your suitability for a professional career in psychology or counselling is part of that process.
An academic reference can be: a teacher, a tutor, a lecturer or a research supervisor. These referees need to be able to comment on your writing and research abilities as well as your suitability for a psychology or counselling career. For the Master of Clinical Psychology (Post Registration) course you can also often use your professional psychology supervisor as an academic referee (just make sure you check with them first that they feel confident addressing this).
A professional referee can be: an employer, a volunteer coordinator, a representative from an organisation you volunteer for (e.g. a Lifeline team leader), or a professional counsellor or psychologist, or other relevant person you have worked with who can comment on your work ethic and your personal qualities with some authority.
Referees should not be close friends and should not be related to you.
We do not answer questions about the suitability of your choice of referees and do not pre-assess applications. If you need help in finding suitable references and making the best application possible, we suggest that you speak to your current academic advisors, or someone you know in the field or counselling or psychology.
We are a small school and cannot provide tailored support to all applicants. Ultimately applicants are responsible for finding suitable referees who know them well enough to comment on the relevant areas of their ability.