Diploma in Psychosexual Therapy

Course Content

The Diploma offers a clinical, professional training in the theory and practice of Psychosexual Therapy.

Theory and Practice

The course includes:

• seminars on psychosexual and relationship issues
• opportunities to develop critical thinking by means of written assignments, reading, discussion
• group work and role play
• monthly case discussion/supervision group
• monthly self-reflective group
• support from a personal tutor throughout the course
• overseeing student’s progress in fulfilling COSRT clinical and supervision requirements.

Clinical Work

Students are required to complete 200 hours of face-to-face clinical work. They must see a minimum of 10 cases, five of which must be with couples.

We provide some opportunities to undertake clinical work at an external placement to broaden experience.

Supervision

In accordance with COSRT guidelines, supervision must be undertaken at the supervision ratio of one hour per six hours of clinical work. Supervisors should be experienced COSRT-accredited psychosexual therapists.

Students working in private practice may charge their psychosexual training clients but must inform clients about their trainee status. Private work must be supervised by a Tavistock Relationships-approved supervisor.

Payment for private supervision is not included in course fees.

Who The Course Is For

The two-year course is suitable for qualified therapists who wish to develop expertise in working with psychosexual issues and to gain a professional qualification in this field.

Entry Criteria

Minimum Entry Requirements

Applicants will need:

• A clinical qualification in individual, couple, child psychotherapy or counselling from a BACP/UKCP/BPC accredited training or
• A clinical qualification in individual, couple, child psychotherapy or counselling plus BACP/UKCP/BPC accreditation
• At least two hundred hours of supervised face-to-face clinical work with individuals or couples.
• Appropriate personal qualities (a high degree of self-awareness, capacity to make and maintain close personal relationships, ability to reflect on personal experience).
• Commitment to self-development, a willingness to be open to experiences and to work with others in reflecting upon them.
• An appropriate level of self-awareness in relation to motivation for learning about working with psychosexual difficulties; a capacity to reflect on experience of personal, couple and family relationships.

NB Successful applicants who have had less than one hundred hours of personal individual therapy will be expected to complete this requirement during the training.

Entry with Advanced Standing

Applicants to the programme may apply for admission with advanced standing where they can produce evidence of prior learning that demonstrates that the learning outcomes of the identified components within the programme have been fulfilled.

Exceptional Entry:

Applicants with other qualifications, or assessed prior (experiential) learning, may be considered for exceptional entry on their merits if the selection panel and the Assessment Board can be satisfied of their clinical and academic competence on the basis of:

• evidence from two referees who can confirm the applicant’s clinical and academic attainment
• other relevant equivalent training and a portfolio demonstrating prior (experiential) learning..

Applicants for advanced standing and exceptional entry will be required to offer evidence of:

• the nature, duration and context of all prior relevant learning
• the standard achieved in any assessment or, if no formal assessment was undertaken, other evidence which can be evaluated by the Assessment Board for entry.

Assessment

Assessment is by: case studies; training log; theory papers; seminar review papers; oral presentation; project work; end-of-course written and verbal examination; ongoing assessment by supervisors, seminar leaders, self-reflective group conductors, and tutors; and a minimum of 200 hours of clinical practice under supervision. (See below.)

Syllabus

The structure of the course is modular but issues around assessment, treatment planning, diversity and relationships will be threaded through all modules on the course. All set reading material, apart from chapters in prescribed text books, will be supplied but students are expected to read and research widely around the topics.

Students will be expected to keep a self-reflective journal throughout the course and to compile a folder of resource material.

Module 1: Thinking About and Working with Relationships

• Why relationship focus?
• Relationship diversity
• Psychodynamic aspects of the couple relationship
• Attachment theories
• Genogram
• Working with individual clients on relationships issues
• Key skills in working with the couple
• Working with violence, aggression and vulnerability
• Protection issues relating to children and vulnerable adults

Module 2: Psychosexual Assessment and Treatment

• Introduction to psychosexual therapy
• Psychosexual assessment
• Psychosexual dysfunctions
• Desire disorders
• Anatomy and physiology of sexual response.
• History taking
• Treatment planning
• Behavioural and education work
• Time-limited work

Module 3: Working with Diversity and with Different Clinical Groups

• COSRT ethical framework
• Sexual minorities, gay and lesbian, bisexuality, asexuality, polyamory
• Transvestism, transgender and intersex
• Working with different cultural groups
• Feminist and eastern thinking and practice
• Sexual compulsivity
• Working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Module 4: Sex Through the Life Span

• Sexual development
• Contraception, abortion, infertility
• Sex after illness, childbirth/becoming a parent, menopause
• Sex in later life
• STIs, HIV

Module 5: Ethics and Revision of Competencies

• Erotic transference
• Ethics and ethical considerations
• Pharmacology and its impact on sexual and emotional function
• Review of assessment, formulation, treatment planning
• Practice management
• Non-pharmaceutical resources

Module 6: Good Enough Sex

• Desire
• Mourning and acceptance
• Endings in relationships and in therapy
• What is meant by good enough sex?