One Year Attachment Based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Supervision Training (ABPPS): Online

Applications Now Open: starting May 2025

This course is for:
• Any therapist at The Bowlby Centre who is considering applying to become a Training Supervisor and/or Training Therapist or join the UKCP Supervisor’s Directory
• Any non-Bowlby therapist wishing to join the UKCP Supervisors Directory who is interested in exploring an attachment-based approach to supervision
• Any existing Supervisor who might want a refresher course or who is interested in exploring an attachment-based approach to supervision
This new and comprehensive course will explicitly address providing supervision through the lens of attachment and psychoanalysis.

You will benefit from the rich experience of an exceptional team of senior attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, a consultant psychiatrist as well as psychosexual and psychodynamic psychotherapists. Many of the trainers are contributors and editors of key texts, papers and publications in the field. Names include Caroline Adewole, Charles Brown, Michaela Chamberlain, Linda Cundy, Dominic Davies, Dr. Zack Eleftheriadou, Lynn Findlay, Dr. Josephine Fielding, Sarah Jack, Cabby Laffy, Mark Linington and Gülcan Sutton Purser.

By the end of the course you will be equipped with the skills and experience to take on the role of Supervisor.

You will receive the Certificate and CPD points (up to 92.5 hours minus any missed hours). You can also decide to complete the Final Assessment Paper in order to apply for the UKCP Supervision Directory. The application criteria are slightly different for these two outcomes. Please see here

According to the path you take, there are also different requirements for your log, records and supervision practice during the course. More detailed information is available in the course prospectus available to download from this page.

The course is on-line and takes place on 10 Saturdays over 10 months from May 2025-March 2026 (excluding August 2025). Students are also expected to attend small groups between monthly sessions.

Understanding psychotherapy within the context of attachment relationships means that we see it as a co-operative venture between therapist and client. The aim is to develop a secure base from which to explore the unconscious and experiences of loss and trauma. We see attachment relationships between individuals as being shaped by groups and society as a whole, over the life cycle.

We believe that discriminating structures in society have an impact on the individual and these need to be thought about and explored in the therapeutic space.

We recognise the importance of mourning, which we see as vital when working through issues of abandonment, emotional neglect, trauma and abuse, whether sexual or physical. We foster and encourage the development of the true self within an authentic therapeutic relationship.

John Bowlby’s original development of attachment theory was promoted primarily by his concern to ensure social recognition for the central importance of attachment and the impact of loss and abandonment on early development. He was also concerned to strengthen the scientific foundations of psychoanalysis, emphasising the importance of basing our theories on research findings as well as clinical evidence. He recognised the need for practising a psychotherapy which can be demonstrated to be an effective contribution to mental health care. Since his original work, attachment theory has come to occupy a key position in this fast-developing scientific field, providing a link between psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, neurobiology, and the behavioural sciences.

Our therapists come from diverse backgrounds and we look to all sections of the community in welcoming course attendees, students and clients. We operate an equal opportunities policy in our work and in our ways of relating to each other.  We are committed to respecting and valuing difference and the training aims to consider the impact of age, class, culture, disability, neurodiversity, gender, race and sexuality on both students and clients.

Duration: 

May 2025 to March 2026

Start Date:

Saturday 10th May

Delivered:

Online

Course Fee: 

£2,680 (per year)  –  £2,480 for Bowlby Members

Criteria for application:
There are two paths available on completion of this course and different criteria are required depending on which path you wish to take
All candidates will need
• A minimum of 2 years post-registration at the time of application and a substantial practice which means an average of 8 clients per week.
• Full membership of a professional body, for example, UKCP or BACP and hold professional liability insurance.

If you wish to apply for the UKCP Supervision Directory on completion of the course you will need:

• To have worked with clients for a minimum of 5 years, of which 3 years must be post-registration, and have undertaken at least 1600 client hours.
• To have UKCP Membership.

What are the dates of the course? 2025-2026

2025 Summer Term 1

  • Saturday 10th May 2025
  • Saturday 7th June 2025
  • Saturday 5th July 2025

2025 Autumn Term   

  • Saturday 6th September 2025
  • Saturday 4th October 2025
  • Saturday 1st November 2025
  • Saturday 6th December 2025

2026 Spring Term   

  • Saturday 10th January 2026
  • Saturday 7th February 2026
  • Saturday 7th March 2026

A welcome event will take place at 9-10 am before the first Saturday seminar begins on 10 May, 2025. On the 5th July and 6th December, additional 30 minutes group tutorials will take place, so the day will finish at 5pm.

In between these monthly seminars there will be a requirement to meet for 2 hours each month for small group peer-led supervision.

All teaching is on-line
• 10.00 am – 11.30 am Seminar 1
• 11.30 am – 11.45 am Break
• 11.45 am – 1.00 pm Continue Seminar 1
• 1.00 pm – 1.45 pm Lunch
• 1.45 pm – 3.00 pm Seminar 2
• 3.00 pm – 3.15 pm Break
• 3.15 pm – 4.30 pm Continue Seminar 2

Applicants will need to apply by completing the application form on our website.
Applicants who are not Bowlby Centre Members will usually have one 30 minute interview. The interview will be with a senior member of the Bowlby Centre usually from the Clinical Training Committee (CTC). The interviewer will explore each candidate’s readiness to train with The Bowlby Centre.

The interview fee will be £85.00

For Bowlby Centre Members there will be an initial administration fee of £25 with no requirement for an interview

Deadline for applications: 15th April 2025

There are two paths available on completion of this course and different criteria are required depending on which path you wish to take

All candidates will need
• A minimum of 2 years post-registration at the time of application and a substantial practice which means an average of 8 clients per week.
• Full membership of a professional body, for example, UKCP or BACP and hold professional liability insurance.

If you wish to apply for the UKCP Supervision Directory on completion of the course you will need:
• To have worked with clients for a minimum of 5 years, of which 3 years must be post-registration, and have undertaken at least 1600 client hours.
• To have UKCP Membership.

If you wish to apply for the UKCP Supervisor’s Directory, you will need to complete an assessment at the end of the course:
• Evidence of having considered 30 case history vignettes during the course, noting your thoughts about working with these.
• 90 hours of supervising a supervisee, plus a log of 100 – 200 words on your reflections and learnings of 15 hours of these sessions.
• 15 hours being supervised on your supervision, plus a 100 – 200 word log of your learnings from each session.
• Submission of your log of the small, self-run group including dates, hours you have attended, who attended and a short 100 word written summary of your learning from each meeting.
• Submission of your Supervisor’s Report
• Completion of the Final Assessment Paper in order to apply for the UKCP Supervisor’s Directory.
• 80% attendance of the taught part of the course, 80% of the small groups and 80% of the case histories, completing any missed seminars the following year if your attendance is under 80%.

• Online training: 5.75 hours per month
• Online small supervision group: 2 hours per month
• Log of learning from the monthly small group: 15 minutes per month
• Consideration of case histories: 1.5 hours per month
• Personal supervision of your supervision: 1 hour per month.
• Supervising a supervisee: 90 hours in total (for those on the UKCP pathway).
• Logging your learning from practising as a supervisor: 15 minutes per month
• Final Assessment Paper: approximately 5 hours
• Reading: approximately 6 hours in total

There is a requirement to be in personal therapy once a week up until registration.

For a period of 3-6 months there is a requirement to be therapy twice weekly prior to registration if this has not been experienced before.

You may be able to keep your current therapist if they are trained psychoanalytically but you will need to change if they are not registered as a psychoanalyst with 5 years post registered experience

• Following the taught part of the course you will be supported and guided to complete:
i) an assessment Paper.
ii) a log of learning from the small groups during the course
• By the time of your Assessment to have completed 90 hours supervision with a suitably qualified supervisee who is not a peer, and have practised with at least one supervisee by the third month of this training. For the first two months you may practise supervision on a colleague/peer if a supervisee cannot be found sooner.
• The candidate is expected to find their own supervisee(s).

You will need to pay for your own 15 sessions of supervision, which you need to have for the duration of this course. The supervisor of your supervision must be 5 years post-registration and a suitably experienced clinician to support you in your training and development.
You will need to pay for your own UKCP Supervisors Directory registration if you choose to take that route.

Attachment relationships affect all aspects of people’s internal and external lives. From the very beginning our earliest childhood experiences shape us emotionally and physically, forming our identity, levels of security, our resilience, our ability to be playful or creative, our relationships and mental health. All people can benefit from learning about attachment theory and our belief is that attachment theory based psychanalytic psychotherapy is a positive and valuable contribution to the world.

Our approach to mental health is therefore based on our curiosity to understand the specific ways which make a particular person vulnerable, hurt or struggle to cope and how an individual relates to their emotional and physical pain, whether this is with attention, engagement, attunement, which implies a secure base or with amplifying, catastrophising or dismissiveness which implies anxiety and attachment trauma.

We inherently welcome, value and celebrate diversity. We seek to understand the reality of people from different ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, faiths, abilities and disabilities, neurominorities and socio-economic backgrounds. We recognise we have an ethical responsibility to do the work to ensure a safe, inclusive home for our psychotherapy community, trainees and the people they work with. Our teaching, training and information is high-quality, offered in small groups for strong relational practice.

Attachment relationships are formed and shaped in the real world, not only in our minds. We therefore believe that all real-life impacts must be part of the therapy and treated with respect, welcome, warmth, openness, and always with a readiness to interact and relate. In particular, we believe that it is vital that people who have undergone extreme traumatic experiences must have their reality validated and their ways to survive deeply respected, whether that be through addictions, compulsions or other ways of coping or self-protection. Above all, we believe that recognising our shared humanity is our shared secure base.

Our work is lived by and measured against our values. Our values are:

  • Compassionate
  • Attuning
  • Inclusive
  • Curious
  • Courageous
  • Transparent