The programme is designed to provide the underpinning for professional training to suitably qualified and experienced people, to enable them to progress to the Postgraduate Diploma in Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy.

• Students are receiving training from the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships: a nationally and internationally recognised clinical, training and research organisation which specialises in the adult couple relationship.
• The programme is the first part of a training route accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

• First degree or equivalent professional qualifications/experience
• Relevant work experience
• Appropriate personal qualities
• i. Self-awareness, maturity and stability
• ii. Ability to make use of and reflect upon life experience
• iii. Capacity to cope with the emotional demands of the course
• iv. Ability to cope with the intellectual and academic requirement
• v. Ability to form a helping relationship
• vi. Ability to be self critical and use both positive and negative feedback
• vii.Awareness of the nature of prejudice and oppression
• viii Awareness of issues of difference and equality
• ix Ability to recognise the need for personal and professional support
• x Competence in, or the aptitude to develop generic professional skills, including: literacy, numeracy, information technology, administrative skills, self management skills, communication and interpersonal skills  
• Commitment to self-development and personal therapy
• Appropriate level of self-awareness in relation to motivation for learning about working with couples

One year, part-time, evening programme, with regular Saturday workshops.

Lectures, seminars, tutorials, self-reflective practice groups, workshops, experiential group work, self-directed study, personal therapy, journal & training/professional logs, assessed written work, presentation of seminar papers.

All assessed work is coursework, which includes essays; self, peer and external assessment of skills; and tutor reports on group work, journals & logs and seminars.

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The written assignments during the programme prepare students to begin thinking critically about the theory and practice of psychodynamic couple counselling and act as a preparation for proceeding to the Postgraduate Diploma programme if they choose.

This programme combined with the Postgraduate Diploma in Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy satisfies the education and training requirements for BACP Individual Counsellor Accreditation. The majority of graduates from the combined programmes have achieved individual accreditation with BACP.

On successful completion of the programme, and following an assessment interview, students may progress onto the Postgraduate Diploma in Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy, during which students work as couple counsellors in TCCR’s clinical service. Successful completion of the PGDip will give the student professional status as a couple and individual psychodynamic counsellor and psychotherapist and able to work in various professional settings.

Each student is assigned a personal tutor, with whom they hold regular meetings on an individual basis. Other staff, such as the Programme Leader, are also available for consultation. Clinical groups are kept small to give the student a rewarding and supportive learning environment. 

On a practical level, TCCR has its own well-stocked, specialist library, In addition to this, students become members of the Library of the Tavistock Centre – a National Resource for Psychotherapy, and are eligible to use UEL’s library and to elect to become members of up to three other academic libraries.  Teaching buildings have tea and coffee-making facilities. 

• Because TCCR is a service agency, students will eventually have ready access to a wealth of client material, which provides the opportunity to integrate the clinical and theoretical aspects of the programme.
• The programme location is in central London, easily accessible by tube, bus and rail. Teaching and clinical work is done either at Warren Street or Artillery Lane in the City of London.