Systemic Family Therapy MSc

at University of Leeds

The MSc is a part-time course and has one or two day full day teaching sessions per month and a weekly four-hour clinic placement in a training team os students, arranged by the course, in which your therapeutic work with families will receive live supervision. There are currently supervision clinics located in Leeds, Bradford, Keighley, Hull, Runcorn, Sheffield, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and Wakefield. This means students can do the most significant amount of work closer to their own area.
 

From the course, you will have gained a depth of knowledge of systems theory, cybernetics, constructivism, and post-modern social constructionist ideas which inform contemporary family therapy practice. You will have an understanding of the main therapeutic models in the systemic field; Structural, Milan, Post – Milan, Narrative, and Collaborative / Dialogic. and the skills associated with them.
 

You will learn about a wide range of systemic approaches to draw upon to work with client preferences and strengths and be able to work with individuals, couples and families and those in close relationships who hold different perspectives and may be drawn to different actions.
 

You will develop skills to work with more severe emotional, behavioural and situational presentations and with a range of mental illness presentations including work with multi-disciplinary and agency complexity.
 

The course privileges a critical understanding of issues of societal power and issues of marginalisation in the many contexts and relationships of people’s lives. In personal and professional development groups and in supervision students are encouraged to identify the range of influences on their practice, ranging from their own family life, educational and professional experiences to those held in wider social discourses. The family therapist will have experience of working with difference and diversity including race, culture, class, age, ability and gender with and able to apply this to their practice in all therapeutic settings. Upon successfully completing the course, you will have an appreciation of individual psychological development and family life cycle and the way in which these stages impact upon and are influenced by significant others. People and their difficulties will be understood in the context of interpersonal relationships and wider institutional and cultural discourses. You will have developed a working knowledge of other psychological and psychotherapeutic theories such that they may be related to systemic work or posed as an alternative.

Modules

Year 1

Compulsory modules

• Theories of Change and Practice I    
• Introduction to Research Methods  
• Family Therapy Skills I    
• Systemic Supervision and Case Presentation I    

• You will already have professional training (normally at graduate level) in mental health or social care, eg social work, nursing, clinical psychology, psychiatry, or relevant equivalent professional experience. Further details can be found in the APEL document (Accreditation of Prior Experience and Learning).
• You will already have successfully completed Intermediate level training in Systemic Practice or equivalent.
• While you are studying with us, you will be required to undertake 200 hours in your own agency setting during the two years of the course and are advised to participate in systemic supervision by a qualified family therapist/supervisor. Your work place may be able to provide or support this. If this is not possible you need to ensure that your supervisor and manager are supportive of your practice developments and your work is supervised in general clinical terms.
• You are advised to plan for the study requirement of the course which amounts to an estimate 635 hours of private study, 18- 20 course days and 40 x 5 hour (weekly) clinic placements per year. Additional time may be required to fulfil statutory and mandatory training in your placement NHS service and travel to and from your clinical placement.
• You will need the support of your current manager in enabling your study and in consent to undertake your systemic practice requirements and reference this work in your assessments (with full attendance to client confidentiality) . Our experience is that this training offers considerable benefits to your work place and population you serve. The support of your manager is an important contributor to this process and the MSc Professional Application includes a letter for your manager which outlines the training and asks for their support for your application. It you are unable to gain support at this stage, it is important that you contact the course team to discuss this as early as possible.

Fees

• UK: £11,000 (total)
• International: £24,250 (total)
   

Successful graduates are able to register with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and apply for family therapy posts. Some Family Therapist posts specify a prior professional qualification and graduates who do not have this (APEL students) may not be eligible for application to these posts.