Two Year Accredited Prior Learning (APL)
2024 Applications Now Closed
To be the first to learn about 2025 applications, contact admin@thebowlbycentre.org.uk, and we will notify you when new information is released.
This course is for qualified counsellors and psychotherapists to become a United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) registered attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist.
This is an engaging and robust clinical training course, which takes place at the weekends during term times providing an opportunity to deepen your thinking in the field of psychotherapy. It will provide you with the knowledge to develop your current practice and to register with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) as an Attachment-based Psychoanalytic psychotherapist.
During the taught part of the course, you will engage with a wide range of important theoretical material, undertake an 18 month Infant Observation and be involved in experiential group work.
By the end of the course you will have developed a solid understanding of how Attachment Theory contributes to clinical work and how helpful it is for treating trauma.
Application Deadline: 30th June 2024
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:
Two Academic Years
Start Date:
September 2024
Delivered:
Mixed Online / In-Person
Course Fee:
£5750 (per year)
Who is the course aimed at?
All applicants must:
- Have undertaken and completed a relevant previous training.
- Be qualified (but not necessarily registered) to work clinically as a counsellor or psychotherapist and be currently working with a minimum of two clients.
- Have undertaken a minimum of 3 years weekly personal psychotherapy in any modality.
- Be in weekly or twice weekly therapy with an attachment based psychoanalytic psychotherapist or a therapist registered with the British psychanalytical council (BPC).
- Be in weekly supervision with an attachment-based psychoanalytic training supervisor.
- Have had a minimum of two years working clinically with appropriate supervision.
What are the dates of the course? 2024-2025
2024 Autumn Term 1
- • September 20th and 21st
• October 4th and 5th
• *October 19th and 20th
• November 8th and 9th
• November 22nd and 23rd
• December 6th and 7th
2025 Spring Term 2
- • January 17th and 18th
• January 31st and February 1st
• *February 15th and 16th
• February 28th and March 1st
• March 14th and 15th
• March 28th and 29th
2025 Summer Term 3
- • May 9th and 10th
• May 23rd and 24th
• June 6th and 7th
• *June 21st and 22nd
• July 4th and 5th
• July 18th and 19th
*Three weekends will be experiential group: October 19th and 20th, February 15th and 16th, June 21st and 22nd. These are held on Saturdays and Sundays. There will be no Friday teaching on these weekends.
The formal training and teaching lasts for two years and is part-time. These are the main strands:
1. Theoretical Seminars
2. Attachment Seminars
3. Infant Observation
4. Clinical Seminars
5. Personal and Professional development
6. Group work
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