Criteria for becoming a Training Supervisor

The clinical training requires that trainees on the four year course work with two training supervisors before registration with the UKCP. Trainees on the two year Acquired Prior Learning course (APL) work with one training supervisor before registration with the UKCP.

A Bowlby Centre training supervisor must have completed a recognised psychoanalytic psychotherapy training and must be registered with the Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis (CPJA) of the UKCP or with the British Psychoanalytic Council ((BCP).

All applicants must have a minimum of five years post registration experience in working individually with clients and will have built a substantial therapeutic practice, having been in supervision themselves with a minimum of 2 supervisors. A substantial clinical practice amounts to a minimum of 1,600 hours or an average of 8 clients per week over the 5 years.

It will be expected that they will have experience of supervising others in a counselling, therapeutic or similar context before becoming a training supervisor.

They should be:

• Familiar with The Bowlby Centre training course and be prepared to support a student through this training.

• Familiar with, and support, The Bowlby Centre Code of Ethics and Practice and should feel able share The Bowlby Centre’s values and demonstrate them in practice.

It is expected that first supervisors will either be current members of The Bowlby Centre community and/or will have trained at The Bowlby Centre.

To be appointed as a first training supervisor you will also need to demonstrate that you:

• Have a good understanding of The Bowlby Centre curriculum and its implications for trainees

• Be prepared to offer the pre-clinical sessions to trainees seeking to apply for PiT status and to prepare an assessment report for the CTC

• Be prepared to attend a minimum of 2 meetings a year arranged by the clinical training committee

• Be prepared to liaise with the course tutor/s as needed

• Provide an annual written report for the Clinical Training Committee following their guidelines

Pursue your own Continuing Professional Development and be up to date with CPD requirements

• Work with appropriate supervision of your current practice

• Have an interest in helping others to develop their own way of being a therapist rather than seeing supervision as ensuring the adherence to a set of rules

Application process

A prospective training supervisor must apply to and be ratified by the Clinical Training Committee (CTC). They will be asked to send in a;

• Letter to the Chair of the CTC outlining how they meet these criteria

• CV outlining their education, employment and qualifications

• Reference from their current supervisor to support their application

Interview

The CTC may invite prospective training supervisor to meet with one or two of its members before making a decision.

Review of training supervisors

It is important for our training supervisors to be role models for our students. It may happen in the course of training supervision that there is a rupture. We would expect our training supervisors to ensure that they seek support and guidance at these times as well as being a role model for our students in these situations.

The Clinical Training Committee reserves the right to review the practice of the training supervisor should a colleague/s, student/s, or other interested parties raise a concern and/or a complaint about the training supervisors practice. This review could lead to the CTC;

• Making contact with the training supervisor to discuss any concerns and work out a way forward to address the concerns

• Advising and/or requiring that the training supervisor undertakes additional training in a specific area for development

• Taking the decision to remove the training supervisor from the approved list disseminated to our students. The removal could be for a specified period of time in which case there will be a requirement for the training supervisor to re-apply for inclusion back onto the list.

• Following the complaints process

Reviewed by the Executive July 2024