Centre for child mental health
Conferences, Training Days and Lectures. Continuing Professional Development Opportunities for Anyone Working to Improve Child and Adolescent Emotional Well-being.
Read More >>
Admissions
Advanced Diploma in Professional Development: Diploma in The Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts
All candidates must have the following:
- Be committed to working with the Arts and the active use of the imagination in the ways outlined by the philosophy of The Institute
- Agree to abide by the Code of Ethics, Code of Practice and Code of Conduct adhered to by The Institute
- Undertake personal psychotherapy with approved practitioners over the duration of the course
- Be able to demonstrate the following capacities and abilities:
- Potential empathetic therapeutic presence
- Self-awareness and the ability to be open and emotionally undefended
- The ability to create with ease both mental and artistic images
- Sound emotional literacy skills
- Emotional robustness
- A good ability to play
- A good level of contact with others
- An accepting, compassionate, as opposed to judgmental, attitude towards others
- The ability to stay stable under stress
- A positive rather than frightened or inhibited relationship to the Arts
Certificate in Therapeutic Counselling with Adolescents and Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling with Adolescents
All candidates must have the following:
As above, plus experience of working with adolescents in a professional capacity
Masters Degree in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy
Candidates wishing to enter the Masters Degree course, in addition to the entry requirements for the Diploma in the Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts course, must normally have the following:
- A first degree from a British university or its equivalent, a qualification in a helping profession or in education, or a minimum of five years’ professional experience in therapy or a related field with the proven academic ability to work at Masters level standard
- The Diploma in The Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts from The Institute, or an equivalent qualification from an alternative, recognised psychotherapy training college (no exceptions)
- The completion of at least one year's in-depth personal psychotherapy
- Minimum age of entry – age 25
- Be able to demonstrate the following capacities and abilities:
- A sound grasp of fundamental therapy skills and fundamental psychotherapy theory
- The ability to work with competence, empathic attunement and depth with a full range of affect states
- To have an awareness of their own feelings and personal process
- The ability to support themselves when working with a client’s negative transference. This means that the candidate would not become defensive in the face of criticism, and would be able to maintain an empathic thinking stance
- The ability to maintain or quickly regain their thinking function when working with a client, as opposed to becoming overwhelmed by or confluent with a client's feelings
- In order to qualify, students with no previous counselling or therapy training must also have completed a short course in counselling (available at The Institute). This can be attended during the Diploma or Masters Degree course.
Masters Degree in Integrative Child Psychotherapy
In addition to MA Degree admission criteria above:
- At least one year’s experience of working with children in a responsible role
- Healthy free-child ego state from which to be fully present and play with a child
- Healthy adult ego state from which to be able to analyse and reflect with a child
- A highly developed capacity for warmth and empathy
- The capacity to fully and authentically amplify a child’s positive affect
Admission Criteria for Direct Entry on to the Masters Degree in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy and Integrative Child Psychotherapy
- First degree
- Qualification from a recognised psychotherapy training college (not counselling), at least 300 hours of training
- Accrued clinical psychotherapy hours under appropriate clinical supervision (log of clinical hours signed by supervisor)
- At least one year personal psychotherapy (not counselling)
- Highly developed capacity for human empathy
- Human warmth, capacity to play and to work fluently with images
- In addition, a written verbatim account of a twenty minute therapy session with a client will need to be submitted at an automatic second interview. Candidates will be required to talk through the verbatim account, focussing on theory and practice which informed their interventions. They will also be required to refer to their use of transference and countertransference
Masters Degree in Education: Emotional Literacy for Children
All candidates must have the following:
- First degree or qualification in education
- Appropriate professional experience to the applied for degree e.g. experience within a helping profession / the arts / education
- Able to engage creatively with a wide range of art forms
- The ability to create with ease both mental and artistic images
- Emotional robustness
- Demonstrate sufficient maturity and life experience
- Ability to play
- Warm, empathic, good interpersonal skills
Certificate in Emotional Literacy for Children / Certificate in Creativity and Imagination
As the Masters Degree (above) but no first degree required.
Conversion Courses from Adult Counselling or Psychotherapy (Reg.) to Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling with Adolescents (UKAPC Reg.) / Diploma in Integrative Child Psychotherapy (UKCP Reg.)
- BACP/UKCP or UKAPC Registered Counsellor or Psychotherapist (status determines eligibility to different qualifications). For the Diploma in Integrative Child Psychotherapy only UKCP registrants will be eligible
- Must have accrued substantial one-to-one clinical hours of working with children or adolescents (course specific) under clinical supervision
- Healthy free-child ego state from which to be fully present and play
- Healthy adult ego state from which to be able to analyse and reflect
- A highly developed capacity for warmth and empathy
Accreditation of Prior Learning
It is possible to apply for Accreditation of Prior Learning. IATE’s procedures for application are as follows:
- A student completes the specific application form for accreditation
- An application is submitted to the Academic Officer along with many supporting documentation by the end of May in each academic year
- All qualifications need to be substantiated with evidence of certificates
- Each application is considered individually by the Academic Board when it meets in July
- Students are informed in writing following the Academic Board meeting of their decision
Please note: graduation from one level of training to the next is not automatic and requires the submission of a formal application / interview.