Intensive Advanced Diploma in
Existential Psychotherapy
This is an exciting new
modular course offering participants the option of attending 6
x 10 day blocks over a period of two years.
The Intensive Advanced Diploma in
Existential Psychotherapy course is suitable for individuals who
are able to manage the intensity distance studying. This may
also benefit overseas students who have the opportunity manage
"blocks" of study.
Existential therapists share some fundamental attitudes,
assumptions, and concerns - nevertheless each practitioner
develops their own unique way of working with clients. This working
practice process is continually bening questioned and
constantly being redefined for each therapist. This uniqueness is
not merely acknowledged, it is embraces, respected and
embodied.
The existential orientation challenges
other approaches to psychotherapy by offering an alternative that
focuses upon client’s inevitable relatedness to all aspects of
being and through which emerges their unique lived dispositional
stances, values, meanings. The emphasis is on the client's whole
experience of existence rather than exclusively on mental
phenomena: it is a theory of being rather than a theory of
mind.
This ethos, expressed through the
therapist’s descriptive clarification and challenge, enables
clients to become aware of the implicit and unreflected aspects of
their way of being and how the disturbing issues that have brought
them to therapy are expressions and consequences of insufficient
examination to their stance to living. The therapeutic process
involves also the willingness on the part of the existential
psychotherapist to explore, expose and confront his or her
assumptions, beliefs and values on an on-going basis.
The course offers trainees the
opportunity to familiarize themselves with some key contributions
made by philosophers that inform and underpin this way of working.
Parallel to this trainees will be given the opportunity to
critically examine the work of some well established practitioners
such as Ernesto Spinelli, IrvinYalom, Emmy van Deurzen, Freddie
Strasser and others. Through exploring the underlying ideas that
influenced these practitioners, and the way in which they
integrated philosophy into their practice trainees will be
encouraged to develop their own way of working.
Theory and philosophy are explored as
a way of helping trainees to adopt a way of understanding what it
is to be human, whilst encouraging them to look at theory and
philosophy as fluid and always open to extension and
reconsideration.
The course de-emphasises the teaching
and reliance upon techniques. What is being promoted for the
trainee to learn and practice, is abstaining from making judgments
on clients behaviour. Instead the course adopts a phenomenological
attitude which seeks to assist trainees to carry out forms of
investigation together with their clients so that the therapeutic
relationship, in itself, becomes the means with which to expose and
explore the ways in which the client relates to self, the world and
others.
The Intensive Modular Advanced Diploma
provides a focused psychotherapy training that challenges, and
contributes to, a wide range of understanding of the therapeutic
encounter. It prepares participants for professional work in both
private and institutional practice. Successful completion will
bring eligibility for registration with the appropriate
professional bodies.
Key Objectives
The key objective of the course is to
make it possible for trainees:
At the end of 3 taught
modules: Eligibility in terms of training hours to apply
for individual Accreditation with BACP
On completion of all 6
modules: Eligibility to apply for UKCP Registration as an
Existential Psychotherapist to all UK candidates. For non-UK
candidates you would be eligible for UKCP Registration if you
fulfil the entry requirements and successfully complete the six
modules. However, this may or may not satisfy the specific criteria
of your own country. In order to assist registration in your own
country a detailed statement of the seminars and hours that have
been undertaken will be provided. To apply for
registration/accreditation with either UKCP or BACP a minimum of
450 clinical hours must also be completed.
Entry Requirements
Course Structure
The course is designed to be completed
in two years.
Each daily session comprises: an
academic and practical component; training supervision; and a
personal and professional development group.
Clinical placement: Every trainee is
expected to work with 2 - 3 adult clients on a minimum once-weekly
basis, one of whom must be long-term, for the duration of the
course.( minimum 24 sessions)
Syllabus
Academic seminars
- Heidegger and Existential Psychotherapy;
- Existence and Therapy;
- The Body, Sexuality and Psychopathology
- The Roots of Existential-Phenomenological Dream Work;
- Communication: Language and Spirituality;
- Student-led Seminar
Practical Component
Each academic seminar will be followed
by a critical and an in depth exploration of the underlying ideas
that influenced well established Existential Practitioners such as:
Ernesto Spinelli, Emmy van Deurzen, Hans Cohn, Rollo May Irvin
Yalom, Freddie Strasser and others and how they have integrated
philosophy into their practice with clients. This will assist
trainees in developing their own way of working
Although grounded in philosophy, the
ADEP is principally a training programme and, as such, the primary
focus will be on trainees' development to become qualified
practitioners with an expertise in the underlying assumptions,
approaches, and attitudes that broadly characterise existential
psychotherapy.
Objectives
The focus will be on providing
trainees with an opportunity to integrate philosophy into their own
lives as well as their clinical practice. Trainees have the
opportunity to discuss published clinical material. They will also
work in pairs in front of the group and give and receive feedback
from tutor and peers. Professional and clinical issues related to
the therapeutic relationship, i.e. frame issues, contracts,
referrals, etc are included in these practical sessions.
Assessment
After completing three taught modules,
trainees are required to present three (3) written submissions:
•Theoretical essay (3.500 - 4,000
words), title to be agreed by the trainee and tutor;
•Client study (3.500 - 4,000
words);
•Personal and professional development
essay (2,500 - 3,000 words).
During the last module (6), trainees
are required to make three (3) oral presentations to the group.
These must be further developed as written submissions, taking into
account the feedback received from peers and tutor.
- Theoretical essay (5,000 words), title to be decided by the
trainee and tutor;
- Client study (5,000 words);
- Personal and professional development essay (3,000 - 3,500
words).
Personal Therapy
All trainees are expected to be in
individual personal therapy for the duration of the course. UK
trainees need to be with an approved UKCP registered
psychotherapist. Non-UK trainees need to be with a licensed
therapist according to the registration requirements of their home
country.
N.B. This course
comprises of 6 blocks of 10 consecutive days, trainees attending
from 10am – 5pm each day. We are aiming to start the first module
in October 2008. The course is modular and each module will run on
condition that a minimum of 10 trainees are
registered.
UKCP Registration
The Society for Existential Analysis
is an accrediting organisation within the Experiential and
Constructivist Section of the UKCP, and registers graduates of the
School’s Advanced Diploma in Existential Psychotherapy as UKCP
registered existential psychotherapists.
For further details
contact:
Lucia Moja-Strasser, Course Director
School of Psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology
Regent’s College
Inner Circle
Regent’s Park
London, NW1 4NS
Email: Strassel@regents.ac.uk or
telephone 020 7487 7406 / 7427