We train people to become counsellors and psychotherapists.
Our courses meet high academic standards and emphasise experiential learning.
We encourage our students to explore different ways of working, and to develop skills to work with a range of clients. The Minster Centre offers more face-to-face training hours and a greater opportunity for personal development than many other training organisations.
We specialise in training in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy. This means we offer an active engagement with the main psychotherapy traditions:
- Humanistic - the 'person to person' relationship.
- Psychodynamic - the importance of the unconscious and early years.
- The Body - the physical basis of emotion, experience, growth and change, including what neuroscience and attachment studies teach us.
- Transpersonal - the experience beyond our material one.
- The impact of the social and political environment on our relationships.
For over 40 years The Minster Centre has maintained a consistent commitment to high standards in its training and ethics. The Centre's training is, as a result, amongst the most respected in the UK. Our courses are validated by the main professional bodies the UKCP and BACP. We are a collaborative partner of Middlesex University, quality assured by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and registered with the Office for Students.
All of the Centre's training staff have expertise and experience as practising therapists and come from a wide range of specialist fields. Several have published in their fields.
Integrative Approach
We introduce our students to the main traditions of psychotherapeutic and counselling theory and practice, in an inquisitive yet theoretically and academically rigorous way. We are one of relatively few training courses that include a module on the Body in Psychotherapy.
This Integrative approach allows flexibility, the ability to work with a wide range of client groups and in many different settings. It also encourages trainees to find their own voice and identity as therapists, enabling them to understand deeply what causes human difficulties and unhappiness, and also what facilitates change.
Experiential
Our training is experiential and personal. We see training as a process of engagement -- engagement between student and theory, student and practice, student and student, student and tutor, student and the wider community. Training is not a passive experience but one which involves you actively and holistically – in mind, body and spirit, as an individual and as part of a group. In this way our trainees come to experience the feel of key psychotherapeutic principles, as well as understanding them intellectually.
Wide Range of Training Options
We offer a wide range of training options:
Introductory and Foundation courses for beginners curious about psychotherapy and counselling.
Professional training qualifications for those wishing to become practitioners.
Post qualification programmes for qualified therapists looking to expand their knowledge and practice.
Part Time Study
We understand that students have to juggle their finances and personal and professional lives in order to train; that professional training is a long commitment, and that it is important for you to make an informed choice about planning your training. Most of our students work and/or have families, and we recognise that training has to fit within busy lives. The Centre also recognises that individual circumstances may change over the training period.
For diploma and MA courses the majority of teaching takes place on one weekday afternoon and evening, plus some weekends over three ten-week terms per year. In the later stages of training you will also start to see clients.
Competitive and Flexible Fees
Fees for our longer courses may be paid at the start of the year, termly in advance, or by monthly standing order. Individual module costs can be calculated separately, enabling students to spread costs if they are re-scheduling training. We strive to keep fees as low as possible.
No Hidden Costs
We try to make our charges as clear as possible. Supervision is an integral part of our professional training rather than an additional and unexpected cost. We endeavour to include other compulsory course components in our fees, apart from individual therapy and placement/ client room costs, books and travel. See fees for individual courses for more information.
Student Support
We encourage our students to explore different ways of working, and to develop skills to work with a range of clients. The Minster Centre offers more face-to-face training hours and a greater opportunity for personal development than many other training organisations. We are regularly praised by our external examiners for the quality and quantity of feedback we give students on their written work. We have a well stocked library which is refreshed annually and students have access to online resources.
Professional Development
Your course fees include in-house clinical supervision from the second year on. You will also be able to access an affordable therapy service which can help you find clients assessed as being suitable to be seen by trainee therapists. Guidance will also be given to support you finding a placement. Both training clients and placements will help you accrue the necessary client hours for graduation and accreditation with the BACP or UKCP.
Triple Qualification
It is possible to achieve a BACP accredited Diploma in Integrative Counselling, a UKCP recognised Advanced Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling, and a Masters Degree validated by Middlesex University, without having to change courses or go to other institutes. The course is modular and has various entry and exit points, with optional qualification pathways.
Career Support
We have a vibrant and growing community of members and graduates, with various initiatives inviting participation such as the e-journal www.ContemporaryPsychotherapy.org, regular events and listing on the Find-A-Therapist function on our website. We circulate jobs listings and CPD offerings to our graduates and members and provide updates on developments that will affect the profession.
What Work Do Graduates Do?
We have graduates working successfully all over the UK and abroad. As well as private practice, graduates can be found working with a variety of client groups in the NHS; in schools, colleges and universities; organisations such as MIND and other charitable foundations; and as tutors in other training organisations.
Research
Recognising that there is an ever-growing emphasis on evidence-based practice and understanding research, we include training in how to carry out research, as well as the opportunity to write a research-based dissertation for award of the MA/Advanced Diploma. We have close links to the e-journal ‘Contemporary Psychotherapy’ and students can contribute to and participate in this.
Contemporary
As well as being grounded in the traditional approaches to psychotherapy and counselling, our tutors also have experience and expertise in contemporary understandings, such as neurobiology, relational work, mindfulness, mentalisation and CBT.
Future Facing
Alongside being firmly rooted in many years of professional practice and delivery of courses, we hold a contemporary and pragmatic focus on how to best prepare students for practice in today's world. This is especially important in the light of demographic and cultural changes, and political and social debates around mental health care in the UK. Our staff members are active in the UKCP and BACP, participating in research and theoretical studies, and operating at senior level in various clinical settings. We understand the world of practice in the 21st century.
