Stage Two (b): Clinical Training

What does the Stage Two (b) cover?

This carefully structured year introduces you to the main specialist areas within counselling and psychotherapy, building your confidence and competence across diverse clinical presentations:

• Ethical practice and safety - You will develop robust approaches to risk assessment, safeguarding responsibilities, and maintaining ethical boundaries in complex therapeutic situations.
• Loss, grief and bereavement - The programme covers contemporary approaches to supporting clients through various forms of loss, understanding complicated grief, and working with the bereaved.
• Trauma and dissociation - You will learn trauma-informed therapeutic approaches, understanding how to work safely with clients who have experienced psychological trauma and dissociative responses.
• Anxiety, panic and phobic presentations - The curriculum includes evidence-based interventions for anxiety disorders, panic attacks, and phobic responses, integrating TA approaches with contemporary practice.
• Psychosexual therapy - You will explore approaches to working with intimate relationship issues, sexual difficulties, and the intersection between sexuality and mental health.
• Addiction and dependency - The programme covers understanding and working therapeutically with substance use, behavioural addictions, and the complex emotional and psychological aspects of dependency.
• Depression and mood disorders - You will develop skills in recognising, understanding and working therapeutically with various presentations of depression and related mood difficulties.
• Emotion, affect and shame - The curriculum explores the therapeutic significance of emotional experience, affect regulation, and working with shame and emotional overwhelm.
• Diversity and cultural considerations - You will examine how cultural background, identity, and social context influence therapeutic work, developing culturally sensitive practice skills.
• Couples and group approaches - The programme introduces therapeutic work with couples and groups, extending your practice beyond individual therapy.
• Professional development - You will explore career pathways, private practice considerations, and the business aspects of therapeutic work.

Your learning is supported through varied assessment methods designed to consolidate your developing expertise. You will complete one 2,500-word essay exploring a topic of particular interest, alongside a 2500-word supervised practice report documenting your clinical development.

The programme includes a collaborative research poster presentation with peers, ongoing reflective journaling, and regular tutorial discussions with experienced tutors. 

What outcomes can I expect from Stage Two?

By the end of Stage Two (b), you will possess a sophisticated understanding of psychological theory as it applies to mental distress, conflict, and therapeutic change across diverse clinical contexts. You will have developed and practised advanced clinical skills, preparing you for either qualified practice as a psychotherapeutic counsellor or progression to final stage psychotherapy training.

The programme's flexible structure offers you three distinct options upon completion:

• Complete your training - Successfully finish the assessment requirements for the NCPS accredited Connexus Institute Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling and begin your career as a qualified practitioner.
• Diploma plus progression - Achieve your accredited Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling and continue to Stage Three for the final year of formal TA training, preparing for UKCP registration and/or CTA qualification.
• Direct progression - Continue immediately to Stage Three without taking the optional Diploma, completing your psychotherapy training and preparation for professional registration as a psychotherapist and CTA.

This flexibility ensures that your training pathway can adapt to your personal and professional goals, whether you wish to begin practice as a counsellor or continue towards full psychotherapy qualification.