Child Psychotherapy Training

Alumni The main training institutions for child psychotherapy are:

The British Association for of Psychotherapists (BAP),

37 Mapesbury Road, London NW2 7HJ. Tel: 020 8452 9823
http://www.bap-psychotherapy.org/content.jsp

THE CLINICAL TRAINING in psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents was founded in 1982. In September 2008 the training became a joint clinical doctorate programme between Birkbeck College (University of London) and the BAP.

THE PROGRAMME will enable trainees to acquire a professional training in child and adolescent psychotherapy and to complete a doctoral-level research project. The training is for a minimum of four years which leads, upon qualification, to Membership of the Child and Adolescent Section of the BAP and accreditation by the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) for work in the National Health Service.

The theoretical orientation of the training represents the thinking of the Independent School within the British Psychoanalytic movement and also provides thinking from the classical Freudian and Kleinian movement, as well as contemporary thought. It allows trainees flexibility and scope to find in time their own theoretical position. For trainees who are in a Jungian Analysis there are additional Jungian Theory Modules. The training is offered in a small-group setting and aims to provide a thorough understanding of normal child development, childhood psychopathology and psychotherapeutic techniques linked with direct experience of clinical work.

Each trainee sees three children in intensive psychotherapy (one child of 5 years or under, one primary school child, and one adolescent), a minimum of three times per week, with individual weekly supervision for each case. Trainees are also required to treat at least six children once or twice a week, to work with parents, and to undertake diagnostic assessments. Trainees work within the NHS, many of them in fully funded posts.

Research methods classes focus on a range of relevant methodologies, including different qualitative approaches. The substantial doctoral thesis is in an area of choice relevant to child and adolescent psychotherapy, and is supervised on an individual basis by members of the Birkbeck School of Psychosocial Studies.

All trainees are required to be in personal psychoanalysis or Jungian analysis with a BAP approved therapist, at least four times per week throughout their training.

APPLICATIONS Applicants are required to have a relevant Honours degree, followed by an appropriate postgraduate course, such as either the MSC or Diploma module of the BAP/Birkbeck MSc or an equivalent pre-clinical course recognised by the ACP (such as the Anna Freud Centre/UCL’s MSc course). Applicants who do not have an Honours degree but have a relevant degree or equivalent, must complete a recognized MSc programme.

Additional requirements are: substantial experience of working with children of two different age groups (e.g. under-5s adolescents); personal suitability and aptitude for psychotherapeutic work with children; having completed, by the commencement of training, at least one year in intensive (3-4 times/week) psychotherapy with a BAP approved training therapist.

Tavistock Centre

120 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BA. Tel: 020 7435 7111
http://www.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/node/373

A course based upon experience of clinical work, which, together with the course in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies (Ref. M7) as a pre-clinical component, leads to qualification as a child and adolescent psychotherapist recognised by the Association of Child Psychotherapists and the Department of Health.

Who is this course for?

You are expected to have substantial experience of working with children and adolescents of varying ages and have completed a minimum of one year of analysis with a recognised analyst, and demonstrate personal suitability for this demanding work.

You must have completed the Postgraduate Diploma/MA in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies course (Ref. M7) or a recognised equivalent.

Aims

• Meet the needs of children, adolescents and their families for specialised psychotherapeutic treatment.

• Contribute to the development of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service as a member of a multidisciplinary clinical team.

• Acquire skills in applying psychotherapeutic understanding in varied community contexts.

• Complete a clinically based training, which prepares you for a career as a child psychotherapist in the NHS.

Content/Teaching components

1. Psychotherapeutic experience during clinical training

2. Programme of teaching events:

Supervision
Group supervision
Clinical seminars
Academic support
Theoretical teaching
Departmental events
Clinic events
Assessed work
Tutorial arrangements

Time commitment

Duration of clinical course: 4 - 5 years.

Entry requirement

Personal Analysis

Students may, or may not, already be in analysis when they begin the observation course.

For those who are not, the first year of the course gives them an opportunity to form some idea of the unconscious emotional depths which can be stirred by a closer acquaintance with, and responsibility for helping to contain, the anxieties of others in distress.

It may lead to the kind of disturbance of complacency, and to the state of self-questioning, which is the best frame of mind in which to begin analysis.

Annual intake is usually 18 - 20. The pre-requisites for those who apply for this course are:

Work experience
Pre-clinical studies
Personal suitability
Academic requirements
Personal analysis

Our MSc students will need to do a conversion course to get into this training which is not the case with the BAP

OTHER SCHOOLS IN THE UK

Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Fairbairn House 72-75 Clarendon Road, Leeds LS2 9PL. Tel: 0113 343 4868

Scottish Institute of Human Relations, 172 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5EA. 0131 454 3240

Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Flat 1, Queens College, Somerset Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2QH. Tel: 0121 455 9393

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Child Psychotherapy Training