MSc Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Top-up)

Applicants to the MSc Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Top-up would need to be BABCP (British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies) Accredited, working towards BABCP accreditation or eligible for it, and hold a Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or equivalent.

Applicants wishing to apply for full time or part time:

1. Have a good undergraduate degree – 1st, 2:1; 2:2 (we advise this be in a Psychology / Mental health related area  - Psychology, psychological therapy (such as counselling or CBT), Mental Health Nurse at degree level etc).

2. (a) Have completed training in an eligible core mental health profession, as featured on the BABCP eligible professions list.

OR

3. (b) Meet BABCP KSA portfolio requirements (If the applicant does not belong to a core profession, recognised by the BABCP).

• The applicant may be eligible for the condensed portfolio requirements (BABCP guidance)
• If the applicant does not have a recognised core profession or meet the requirements for a condensed portfolio, they will have to complete a full portfolio
• The portfolios will need to have been reviewed by the KSA course selector, prior to admission.

4. The student will need to have completed 1 year accountable practice in a mental health setting, following the attainment of skills and competencies required for the KSA portfolio or following core professional training. The one-year accountable practice would have been completed prior to commencing the course (this can be the year leading up to the course).

5. Clinical supervision will need to be in place prior to acceptance on the course – Clinical supervisors will need to provide assurance letters that they are contracted or have agreed to provide clinical supervision and they are BABCP accredited therapists or posses additional accreditation in CBT clinical supervision (e.g.  BABCP accredited supervisor).

6. Clinical placement agreements need to be in place prior to commencing the course. Assurance letters from placements will need to be in place, prior to starting the course. Clinical skills training commences immediately and cases need to be focussed on common mental health problems – anxiety, trauma and depression. Psychological trauma training is in year 2 for part time students or half way through the course for full time students – we do not recommend working with trauma at the start of the course.

Applicants wishing to apply for the full time route only:

• For full time applicants, the student will need to have a firm clinical placement in place already with access to at least 5+ cases. This can be a placement in which the applicant is familiar with and they may already work or volunteer. This needs to be in place prior to commencement on the course. Work based assurance letters will be required as evidence this is the case, detailing the number of cases the student will have access to and the problems will be single episode common mental health problems. Cases that present with complex symptoms are not advised.
• The full time route would ideally suit organisations wishing to second their staff for training or self funding students who already work in a psychological therapy setting, with access to people seeking help for common mental health problems (e.g. an IAPT service or self employment as a therapist trained in a different therapeutic modality).
• All other students would need to apply for the part time route.

MSc CBT ‘top up’

Same admissions criteria for any Masters at BNU, however the topic needs to be related to the field of CBT practice. This is ideally suited to qualified CBT therapists who wish to expand their skills in research and evaluation and / or wish to develop a clinical project.

The choice of projects are:

1. Empirical Project – We would only recommend this, if you have access to a research population, have a research proposal and have already have completed modules in Research Design and Methods. The team would need to review the research proposal (1000-1500 words) prior to entry.
2. Extended Case Study of a case, subject to patient consent.
3. Systematic Review / Methodological Analysis of an area of interest within the field of CBT practice, service delivery or lived experience research.
4. Practice based project – The development of a package of product relevant to the field of CBT, based on existing evidence (academic literature) or secondary data analysis (e.g. analysis of national IAPT datasets).