Our Courses
Whether you want to explore if professional training is right for you or have already decided your chosen path, our Foundation Certificate is the place to start. Successful completion opens up the possibility of pursuing either our Counselling or Psychotherapy training pathways and ultimately, membership of BACP or UKCP, our accrediting bodies.
This 10 week evening course offers a taste of what it’s like to train at BCPC. You’ll explore the theme of difference and identity - both personally and what it means when relating to others. You’ll also develop essential active listening skills to help you learn to listen with difference in mind. This short course is designed for anyone wanting to develop their listening skills in their place of work or everyday life. It is also a natural springboard for students wishing to apply for the Foundation certificate. Find out more: Listening Skills in a Diverse World
This one year, part time course serves as both a stand alone self development year and crucially, the gateway for our professional training. It offers a unique opportunity to discover if further training is for you and successful completion of the certificate course opens up the possibility of pursuing our Counselling or Psychotherapy training pathways.
The Foundation curriculum is based on humanistic principles of personal growth and a core belief that we can only be present for another when we fully know and are able to be present with ourselves. The learning is experiential which means you will start with your own experience and response to the teaching, exploring ideas and concepts from the inside out. Through skills practice in active listening, you will put these concepts into practice and discover what it means to be in a therapeutic relationship with another.
The course will support you in a journey to discover more about who you are and this deep commitment to personal exploration is reinforced by the requirement to be in personal therapy for the duration of the course. Find out more: Foundation Certificate
Our Advanced Diploma is one of two training routes open to you on completing the Foundation Certificate. This two year taught course leads to membership of BACP with the option of becoming a UKCP accredited Psychotherapeutic Counsellor post qualification. A third submission year allows you space to complete your dissertation and case study and develop a small private practice - which is a unique feature of our Advanced Diploma.
Your training will prepare you for the highest level of clinical practice, underpinned by a robust theoretical framework and strong ethical foundations. You will start in an agency placement early in Year 1 and throughout Year 2, experiencing what it’s like to work as a Counsellor in an organisational setting.
The theoretical model is Humanistic and Integrative which means you’ll be exploring a range of theories, rooted in principles of human growth and development. You will be required to be in personal therapy throughout the duration of the training. This commitment to personal development underpins the ethos of our training and our depth approach to professional practice. Find out more: Advanced Diploma in Humanistic & Integrative Counselling
Our Diploma/MA is a longer training journey which will equip you to work in depth as a psychotherapist in private practice with automatic UKCP membership at the point of graduation. It is flexible in length as it will follow your developmental needs but most students complete the training within 7 years.
The first preparatory year and the second year, which marks the start of the MA programme, are taught weekly. You will then progress to a modular approach in years 3 and 4 focussing on Relational Process, Body Process and The Ecological Self supported by Collaborative research days. The training culminates in a final research year which is taught fortnightly and a one to two year write up period for your final submissions.
The programme is designed to support a depth approach to personal process and the solid underpinnings of professional practice. The MA requirements also support a rigorous engagement with and critiquing of humanistic, psychoanalytic and post modern theory and its philosophical underpinnings. You will be supported in forming your own integration of theory drawing from contemporary and diverse perspectives. You will be in personal therapy throughout the duration of the training and due to the length of the programme, this deepening awareness of self and process forms the bedrock of psychotherapeutic practice. Find out more: Diploma / MA in Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy
"Training at BCPC felt like entering a whole new world. For me, it became a profound experiential journey and a deep dive that taught me far more than I ever expected. It was a long and demanding experience, with fascinating and challenging modules, all helping to lay the foundations for a new career in psychotherapy."
Psychotherapy MA Graduate
Our psychotherapy training is accredited by the UKCP and quality assured by Middlesex University. Our counselling training is dual accredited, by the BACP and the UKCP.
