Interested in being a Member of the Bowlby Centre

We welcome all expressions of interest in the work of the Bowlby Centre as we are keen to spread the word about the importance of early attachment relationships in the understanding of mental pain and in the development of a more relational and accessible psychotherapy practice.

If you are already a psychotherapist registered with the Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy or other psychoanalytic registering body please read the following pages and get in touch with us if you have any queries or want to apply.

Unfortunately, at the present time, because of the requirements of our professional regulator, we cannot open the membership to people who have not done an equivalent training to the one we offer.

In the meantime there are other ways to keep in touch with The Bowlby Centre:

  • subscribe to our journal “Attachment
  • attend the Bowlby Memorial Conference held in the spring annually and other conferences/study daysif you are a counsellor or psychotherapist you could attend one of the short courses  we run on Attachment in Clinical Practice, Working with Dissociation or Working with clients with Learning Disability
  • details of these activities and much more can be found on the website www.thebowlbycentre.org.uk

We are also developing a conversion course to begin in Autumn 2016 – for further information please contact Victoria Settle torivleach@icloud.com.

Procedure for External Membership

The Bowlby Centre ’s procedure for dealing with applications from psychotherapists who wish to become full practising members of the Centre but who have not trained with us is as follows:

1. Where the application for membership is from a therapist who has trained with an organisation in the Analytic Psychology and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Section of the UKCP or who has trained with an organisation whose standards are recognised to correspond to those outlined in the training standards document of the AP&PP Section (eg BPC accredited training organisations) the applicant will be asked to provide:

  • evidence of registration through an organisation as outlined above
  • a full CV providing evidence of the level and type of psychotherapeutic practice, including CPD, undertaken in the post registration period which normally should be a minimum of 3 years
  • evidence of and a commitment to relational Attachment-based practice and an understanding of The Bowlby Centre ’s values (see Handbook) and ethical practice. This could be done through a case study with a maximum length of 10k words.
  • the names and addresses and phone numbers of two professional referees, one of whom should be a current supervisor
  • a letter from their current registering organisation confirming that they are not the subject of an investigation or complaint.

2. Where the application for membership is from a therapist who has trained with an organisation which is not in the Analytic Psychology and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Section of the UKCP or of corresponding standard (as outlined in 5.7.1 above) the applicant will be asked to provide:

  • evidence of professional training completed and accrediting organisation; the training must be psychodynamic in orientation and be the equivalent of a 4 year part time MA.
  • evidence of personal therapy with a registered therapist for a substantial period of which a minimum of 4 years should be twice a week
  • evidence of having undertaken an infant observation study of at least 18 mths.
  • a full CV providing evidence of the level and type of psychotherapeutic practice, including supervision and CPD, undertaken in the post registration period which must be a minimum of 3 years; the client work must include twice weekly work.
  • evidence of and a commitment to relational, psychoanalytic Attachment-based practice and an understanding of CAPP’s values and ethical practice. This could be done through a case study with a maximum length of 10k words.
  • the names and addresses and phone numbers of two professional referees, one of whom should be a current supervisor.
  • a letter from their current registering organisation confirming that they are not the subject of an investigation or a complaint.

Each applicant providing the required evidence will be interviewed by two members of the Clinical Training Committee.

The application process will normally take about 3 months and a cheque for £300 should be included with the application. If the application does not proceed to the interview stage a refund of £125 will be made.

If the application is successful the new member will be asked to present a paper at a future clinical forum providing an opportunity for the new member to introduce themselves and to be welcomed into the organisation.