Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Study mode:On campus Study type:Part-time Languages: English
Local:$ 5.12 k / Year(s) Foreign:$ 5.12 k / Year(s) Deadline: Jan 20, 2025
1 place StudyQA ranking:2365 Duration:1 year

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This course aims to equip practitioners with the enhanced CBT skills necessary to implement evidence-based treatment across a wide range of clinical presentations, and to disseminate these treatments as trainers and supervisors to other practitioners. 

As a student undertaking this course, you will need to have already completed either the PGCert in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or the PGCert in Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Your PGCert will be subsumed by the PGDip in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. 

This course is designed to help you achieve certain aims. By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • appreciate how theory, research and clinical practice inform each other in cognitive behavioural therapy, contributing to its continued development
  • establish and practise a repertoire of enhanced cognitive behavioural skills
  • develop the ability to apply these skills with specialist patient groups and problem areas encountered in their own places of work
  • establish and maintain warm, respectful, collaborative relationships, and develop the ability to understand and manage difficulties in the alliance (including the student’s contribution) using a cognitive conceptual framework
  • through consultation, identify and resolve difficulties in practice, whether arising from theoretical, practical, interpersonal, personal or ethical problems.

There are four pathways for this course representing different specialisms: Complex Presentations, Psychological Trauma, Psychosis and Bipolar, and Supervision and Training. You will choose one specialist pathway, which you will follow for the duration of your course.  If you have already completed one of these specialist pathways while undertaking the PGCert in Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy you will need to choose a different specialism for this course. The duration of each specialist pathway will vary, but the course length for the PGDip will not exceed one year.

Students will be expected to have access to treatment settings with regular clinical and CBT supervision where cognitive behavioural therapy skills can be practised and refined on a regular basis. Those applying for the Supervision and Training pathway will be expected to have access to setting  with CBT trainees and supervisees.

The course structure will vary according to the specialist pathway chosen. Reading and completion of written assignments will be undertaken in addition to the teaching days. Many students find it effective to set aside at least six to seven hours a week for private study. 

Complex Presentations

This specialism seeks to enable students to add to their existing knowledge of cognitive behavioural therapy, models, concepts and methods specific to more complex mental health problems (eg eating disorders, psychosis, complex trauma), and models employed in the treatment of personality disorder, severe mental illness and cases with a high degree of comorbidity, and to establish and practise a repertoire of cognitive behavioural skills for use with complex presentations.

Students are expected to carry out CBT with at least three suitable patients during the course and receive two hours of small group supervision on a bi-weekly basis.

The course begins with a four-day induction block and then bi-weekly training workshops on Thursdays and Fridays.

Psychological Trauma

This innovative programme is designed to offer in depth training and supervision in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for traumatised populations. It offers comprehensive training in CBT for traumatised populations with a strong grounding in current theories and the up to date evidence base.

Sixteen days of training are spread over an academic year in intensive four day teaching blocks and students are expected to complete Trauma focused CBT with at least two patients over the duration of the course.

Psychosis and Bipolar

This specialism seeks to enable students to develop a sound understanding of cognitive behavioural models of psychosis and the related evidence base; competence in engaging, assessing and developing collaborative formulations with individuals with psychotic and bipolar illness; and competence to deliver high quality, individualised, evidence-based interventions in accordance with NICE guidance and the competence framework for work with people with psychosis and bipolar disorder (Roth & Pilling 2013).

The course comprises teaching over three terms. Term I starts with a four-day teaching block in October and is followed by one full-day per fortnight (Thursday) during November, and a two-day teaching block in December. The second two terms comprise of one full-day per fortnight (Thursday) over Hilary and Trinity Terms.

Supervision and Training

This specialism explicitly aims to prepare students to teach and supervise CBT. The emphasis is on acquiring, practising and communicating specialised dissemination skills, within an explicit theoretical framework in relation to associated empirical research.

Students are normally expected to carry out CBT supervision in at least three supervision settings over the course and to present at least one training event.

The course comprises 18 days, presented in five teaching blocks. It begins with a four-day induction, followed by further 3-day or 4-day blocks. Formal teaching comprises full or half-day workshops as a half-day Practice of Supervision (PoS) session is regularly integrated into the course.

Course assessment

Summative assessment requirements vary according to the specialism chosen.

Complex Presentations

  • Two clinical recordings;
  • Two case reports of not more than 4000 words.

Psychological Trauma

  • One assignment of not more than 2,000 words demonstrating knowledge of CBT theory;
  • One clinical recording;
  • One clinical assessment report of not more than 2,000 words;
  • One case report of not more than 6,000 words.

Psychosis and Bipolar

  • A research presentation of up to 20 minutes duration based on the theoretical content;
  • One clinical recording;
  • One case report of not more than 6,000 words;
  • One case presentation of up to 15 minutes duration.

Supervision and Training

  • One assignment of not more than 2,000 words demonstrating knowledge of supervision and training theory;
  • One video recording of supervisory practice and supervision critique of not more than 2,000 words;
  • One training report of not more than 4,000 words.

Applicants are normally expected to be predicted or have achieved a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (or equivalent international qualifications), as a minimum, in a relevant subject.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.

Applicants are also normally expected to:

  • be qualified members of one of the main National Health Service professions, eg clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, general practitioners, occupational therapists, or other recognised professions, eg social worker; 
  • have at least two years' post-qualification clinical experience; and
  • have completed an OCTC/University of Oxford PGCert in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or PGCert in Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

If you hold non-UK qualifications and wish to check how your qualifications match these requirements, you can contact the National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom (UK NARIC).

  • Official transcript(s)
  • CV/résumé
  • Statement of purpose: 500 words
  • References/letters of recommendation: Three overall, all of which must be academic

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

Higher level

est

Standard level scores

Higher level scores

IELTS Academic 
Institution code: 0713

7.0 Minimum 6.5 per component  7.5  Minimum 7.0 per component 

TOEFL iBT 
Institution code: 0490

100

Minimum component scores:

  • Listening: 22
  • Reading: 24
  • Speaking: 25
  • Writing: 24
110

Minimum component scores:

  • Listening: 22
  • Reading: 24
  • Speaking: 25
  • Writing: 24
Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) 185

Minimum 176 per component

191 

Minimum 185 per component

Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) 185

Minimum 176 per component

191 

Minimum 185 per component

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