Intermediate Systemic Practice with Families and Couples

Entry requirements

Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree at Honours level, or equivalent. Applicants must have successfully completed the foundation year in systemic practice at the University of Bedfordshire or its equivalent at another university.

An RPEL route is available for students with substantial prior experiential learning. International students are required to have English competence at IELTS level 6.0 or equivalent. Applicants would usually have a relevant previous professional qualification such as psychology, social work, medicine, nursing or education. This is an AFT requirement for applicants progressing to years three and four, the systemic psychotherapy qualifying years. As this is a practice based course applicants must currently be working with families or couples in a professional context.

PgCert

Months of entry

September

Course content

About the course

This course is designed to help nurses, social workers, teachers, counsellors and other health professionals develop their knowledge and increase the effectiveness of their work with families, couples and individuals. It is built on the theoretical and practice frameworks established in the foundation year, and is both an intermediate year of training for systemic psychotherapy and end-stage training for the systemic practitioner.

Choose Intermediate Systemic Practice with Families and Couples PgCert and:

• Study professional contexts and the way in which they relate to work with clients, learn about ways of working which meet the needs of disadvantaged client groups, and investigate the legislative frameworks practitioners have to work with.

• Explore issues of difference and the promotion and development of anti-oppressive practice which are central to the course’s philosophy and permeate all aspects of your learning.

• Develop your familiarity with and confidence in employing approaches that are encompassed by systems theory.

• Gain a wide range of critical skills through reading, discussion, student presentations and reviews of current research.

• Benefit from a critical approach to theory and practice in the light of inequalities and your clients’ differences in relation to race, class and gender.

Key features

• This course equips participants with a systemic approach to working with individuals, couples and families at intermediate level. About one third of our students finish at this level and add the skills to their professional practice, as a systemic practitioner. About two thirds of our students continue to the MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy.

• The inclusion of a wide range of systemic approaches has been considered an important characteristic of our courses across the two courses and the four years of the training. It is part of the philosophy of the course to encourage a critical approach to theory and practice in the light of inequalities and differences of race, class and gender, and to encourage an anti-oppressive approach to working with clients. Developing self-reflexivity, the awareness and utilisation of the person of the practitioner in action, is also a core aspect of the course.

• The course is designed for professionals who wish to increase their capacity to work directly with individuals, couples and families. This includes nurses, social workers, teachers, counsellors, other health professionals and those in front line services who wish to utilise a systemic approach with clients.

• The course stresses the importance of understanding professional contexts and the way in which they relate to work with client families and couples. Particular emphasis is placed on thinking about ways of working which meet the needs of the most disadvantaged client groups and which take account of the legislative frameworks within which most practitioners will have to work. Attention to issues of difference and the promotion and development of anti-oppressive practice are central to the course philosophy and permeate all aspects of the teaching.

• This course is designed to help professionals to develop and deepen systemic knowledge and skills in order to increase the effectiveness of direct work with families, couples and individuals. The course is both an intermediate year of training for systemic psychotherapy and end stage training as a systemic practitioner. It is built on the theoretical and practice frameworks established in the foundation year of training. It seeks to deepen students familiarity with and confidence in employing a number of approaches encompassed by systems theory.

• Successful completion of the course entitles the graduate to the use of the title `Systemic Practitioner which is recognised by the Association for Family Therapy and is very attractive to employers in social care.

Career opportunities

Students are encouraged to apply all of the learning to their work context which will enhance their career management skills. The course develops a range of practice skills which the student transfers directly into the work place; these include direct work and consultation skills.

Throughout the course you will be given ample opportunities to enhance your communication abilities. In the small groups you will regularly prepare and present ideas from recommended texts. This requires a short verbal account of main themes in the papers. You will be required to demonstrate your understanding through the development and setting of an exercise, using direct teaching, the setting forth of a discussion or other creative activity that shows your ability to make sense of systemic texts.

You will also be expected to present case examples from your professional practice and show the application of systemic ideas to `live practice situations. These presentations provide you with an opportunity to show that you can discuss systemic ideas in ways that engage and stimulate others. The ability to communicate systemic ideas is central to the course and will give you confidence in talking about these ideas in your usual work setting. All students must do this and part of the final assessment is a small group presentation that formalises this learning.

You will also be given space in each of the plenary sessions to pose questions, make comment and critique ideas put forward in the sessions as well as offer formal feedback.

You are expected to understand ideas well enough to take them back into your workplace and describe and apply them in ways that are relevant to your usual client context. This is enhanced on the course through case consultations which focus on the organisational context and the affordances and constraints of that context. You will be expected to participate in experiential learning and role play exercises that require you to use your communication skills to take the positions of clients or therapists.

You will have formal written opportunities to communicate your developing systemic skills through the assignments, the log of your professional practice and the reflective learning journal.

You will encounter feedback from tutors and your peers that is respectful and appreciative. You will be expected to incorporate this style of feedback into your participation on the course and with other students.

Students are encouraged to apply all of the learning to their work context which will enhance their career management skills. The course develops a range of practice skills which the student transfers directly into the work place; these include direct work and consultation skills.

On successful completion of the course you can use the title `Systemic Practitioner. This is a title recognised by the Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice and is highly regarded by employers in social care, education and the voluntary sector.

Areas of study may include:

• Intermediate systemic theory with families and couples
• Intermediate systemic skills with families and couples

Qualification and course duration

PGCert