Stage Two (a): Clinical Training

What does the Stage Two (a) cover?

Over eleven weekends, you will be introduced to the main schools and approaches of TA to explore how they understand therapeutic change, diagnosis and treatment planning, as well as being taught the professional clinical skills needed to work with clients in a therapeutic context.

This is the year that you will start a voluntary placement as a trainee counsellor and experience what it’s like to be in a therapist’s chair working with live client issues under the guidance of a supportive clinical supervisor.

Examples of course content

• ‘Neuroscience, the ‘Social Brain’ and our perception of safety in relationships
• A client's clinical journey
• Contracting for therapeutic change
• The Classical School; psychological games, decontamination and psychopathology
• The Redecision School; self-actualisation, fundamental change and impasse theory
• The Cathexis School; co-dependency, symbiosis, passive behaviours and reparenting
• Relational TA; development of the ‘self’, emerging unconscious process, empathic transactions, transference and countertransference
• Professional Practice and Ethics
• Working with difference and diversity
• Relational contact and dynamics in the therapy room

During this year, you will need to complete two x 2500 word essays, have a reflective discussion with your tutor and have your counselling skills endorsed as ready for placement. You will also need to continue with your journal, and at the end of the year, hand in a supervisor’s report if you have started your clinical placement. Our aim this year is giving you a solid start in developing your clinical competency and your skills, and our highly experienced tutors are here to help you every step of the way.