Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy

• Both the MA and Postgraduate Diploma for this course will help you develop the skills and knowledge you need to work as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and counsellor with couples and individuals.
• You will gain an academic qualification as well as the clinical training experience required for accreditation with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and registration with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC).
• Working with experienced practitioners in the helping professions, you will benefit from experiential learning and teaching techniques that foster discussion, creative and collaborative learning opportunities.

What you will learn

Through experiential learning and your own experience of personal psychoanalytic psychotherapy, you will develop an analytical understanding of self and other, and interpersonal dynamics. A diverse range of family structures are studied on this course, and we encourage an inclusive approach to couple relationships through reading, discussion groups and self-reflection.

Key areas of study include:

• assessment of core issues presented by clients
• principles of working psychodynamically with a focus on unconscious processes and transference
• psychoanalytic models of the mind
• historical development of psychoanalytic thought
• complex theoretical concepts and how they are applied to the couple relationship.

How you will learn

This course is available to study part-time in the afternoon and evening, with additional time commitments needed on other days with the start of your clinical placement and supervision in Year 2. You will also need to take part in a minimum of once-weekly, in-person individual psychoanalytic therapy for the duration of your training which must commence within two months of starting the course.

You will learn through theory seminars, clinical workshops, self-reflective groups and small-case discussion clinical groups. You will also be supported by termly one-to-one continuous professional development meetings and weekly supervision with the start of your clinical placement. You will be required to undertake clinical placements under supervision in Years 2 and 3.

Teaching and clinical work is based at Tavistock Relationships in central London, close to Liverpool Street station, with occasional sessions at Birkbeck's Bloomsbury campus.