Psychodynamic Practice

Our Graduate Certificate in Psychodynamic Practice will teach you the basic elements of the psychoanalytic method and will equip you with the necessary skills of self-awareness and emotional sensibility that you need to go on to pursue clinical training as a counsellor or psychotherapist.

The programme is a preliminary course for those who have a first degree, or equivalent, in psychology, who wish to embark on clinical training in psychodynamic counselling or psychotherapy. The programme has been specifically designed as a progression route for students who wish to study one of Birkbeck's clinical Master's programmes in counselling and psychotherapy.

The course will also be of interest to those who wish to study the psychodynamic method and its application to group processes, especially as a way of understanding human experience and behaviour in more depth. You will gain a deep understanding of the (unconscious) dynamics that occur in groups and organisations through participation in an experiential group, which is an unstructured group that studies its own processes. Being a member of the experiential group will develop your capacity for self-awareness and emotional sensibility, key attributes necessary for psychodynamic practice.

This is an undergraduate-level qualification that will prepare you for postgraduate study. Graduate Certificates/Diplomas typically take one to two years to complete and are made up of two, three or four modules at final-year undergraduate degree level (worth 60, 90 or 120 credits).

• This innovative, creative and interdisciplinary course will help you become a competent, critical and responsible student of the social world and the psychological and social forces that shape individuals.
• Birkbeck has over 40 years' experience of teaching psychodynamic counselling and practice.
• The Department of Psychosocial Studies is genuinely interdisciplinary, with academics coming from backgrounds in anthropology, cultural and postcolonial studies, education studies, gender and sexuality studies, literary studies, critical psychology, psychoanalytic studies and sociology.