Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Psychotherapy

Course Content

In the Diploma year, the curriculum emphasises the following learning objectives:

• Understanding the cognitive basis of emotional disorders
• Structuring a cognitive therapy session
• Assessing the scope of presenting difficulties and agreeing specific therapeutic goals
• Building and maintaining a therapeutic alliance through collaboration and feedback
• Developing individual cases formulations
• Applying cognitive and behavioural interventions in a clinically sensitive manner
• Fostering resilience and creativity in clients through self-help assignments
• Terminating therapy and preparing clients for inevitable lapses in their recovery

These clinical aspects of cognitive therapy are the exclusive focus of the first term. In the second term, the application of these skills to specific disorders, e.g. depression, panic disorder, OCD, social phobia, PTSD and psychosis, will be presented. There will also be specific teaching on coping with adverse life conditions, e.g. cancer, and final term consists of an introduction to schema-focused cognitive psychotherapy which emphasises the working through of early experiences of loss, abuse, shame and other traumas.

Students who satisfy all the requirements of the Diploma year will graduate with a Postgraduate Diploma award.

Course Handbook 2008-09 (PDF 349 kB)

Diploma Year

In the first two terms we shall focus on "classical " short-term cognitive psychotherapy for acute disorders. In the first term we shall concentrate on basic skills and concepts, broadly applicable to a range of patients and problem areas. We shall work on developing a generic cognitive conceptualisation and on the acquisition of generic skills, like identifying and finding alternatives to negative automatic thoughts, identifying and re-evaluating dysfunctional assumptions, and working with process issues in psychotherapy. It is worth remembering that "basic" means fundamental, not simplistic or simple.

In the second term we shall consider how these generic skills and concepts should be refined and modified when they are applied to specific disorders, for example depression, panic disorder and substance misuse. We shall introduce specific diagnostic conceptualisations which aim accurately to pinpoint the specific cognitive and behavioural difficulties that characterise particular disorders and shall describe specific treatment interventions designed to target them.

In the third term we shall introduce specific issues in treating difficult, complex cases and work on developing individualised developmental cognitive conceptualisations. We will also examine the application of cognitive therapy in the context of multidisciplinary teams and self help organisations.

This course will offer the opportunity to explore in depth the theory and practice of cognitive psychotherapy. This does not mean that we expect you to undergo a conversion experience, nor necessarily to pursue this approach exclusively when you have completed the course. Rather it should mean that you have the knowledge and skills to use cognitive psychotherapy consistently and effectively if you wish to do so. In order to reach this point, we suggest that you take advantage of this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in cognitive psychotherapy to the full.

Necessarily, your performance will be evaluated over the year. It is important, however, that awareness of assessment should not be at the expense of your creativity, or your willingness to express your own ideas openly and to experiment with new ways of thinking and working. The course is an opportunity for you to learn and develop in an atmosphere of openness and inquiry.

During the course, students will receive supervision with a minimum of three cases and will attend teaching sessions on the theory and practice of cognitive psychotherapy in relation to a variety of different problem areas and disorders. Our intention is that at the end of this period you should be competent to assess and treat acute (Axis I) emotional disorders and be acquainted with the concepts and methods of schema-focused cognitive psychotherapy, which are more appropriate to long-term and recurrent disorders.

The course on its own does not aim to train you to supervise or to train others, though we hope that you will develop sufficient knowledge, confidence and skill to be able to relax into cognitive psychotherapy and carry it out comfortably with your own personal style. You may not have reached this point by the end of the course, but you should have established a solid basis for further development.