People often ask us about the entry requirements for the training, 

• You have to be over 18 and have an undergraduate degree or equivalent life experience.
• You don’t have to have been in therapy before but it does help if you have a relationship to the world of Psychotherapy.
• You don’t have to be a Buddhist, but it does help if you have a relationship to some kind of spiritual enquiry or mindfulness practice.
• It is important that your life situation is stable and that you can approach the training with a level of internal maturity.  

We have a faculty of tutors that can be seen here.

Each year group will have a Year Tutor Team who works with that group throughout the year.  For subsequent years, you may have different Year Tutor Teams.  

You will be told who your tutor/s are either at Interview or when your place is offered on the course.

It is possible to graduate and be awarded your PG Diploma in Mindfulness Based Core Process Psychotherapy in the academic year following the end of the four year training.  This is entirely dependent on the speed at which you meet the requirements of the course and many students take longer than this.  

Currently you can accredit one year after graduation, if you meet all the requirements.

Please note, you will be working with clients throughout most of the training and so may have a significant psychotherapy practice by the point of graduation and/or accreditation.

Overall the course is part-time and many people have undertaken the training whilst being in full time employment and/or with family commitments.

There are no fixed number of hours you need to make available per week.  Reading and studying around the course lectures is self-directed and intensifies around essay and written deadlines.  So the more time you have to read and watch online content etc, the richer your learning experience will be.  

We also encourage students to keep a self-reflective journal throughout their training.

All students need to be in Weekly psychotherapy so you need to make weekly time for this.  There are practice sessions called ‘exchanges’ which may happen between or around your module dates.  Again this may mean approximately one evening per month.

There are three online tutorials of approximately 20 minutes each, with your tutors during the training year.

As the course progresses, you will need to make time in your schedule to meet clients and attend clinical supervision.  

No.

Currently, we do not accept students who are unable to be fully resident in the UK for the entire training.

Because of Brexit and attendant issues around insurance, we are currently not taking students from the EU unless you are fully resident in the UK.

For students who are intending to move to the UK to complete the training and then return to a country of origin, we would need to be clear with you about whether UKCP accreditation would allow you to work in your country of origin.

For any students wishing to relocate, we are not able to help with student visas for resident purposes.

A pre-requisite for entering the training is to participate in an Introductory Day.  Following the Intro Day there is an application form and an Interview where tutors meet applicants to explore more about suitability to the Foundation Year.

Following successful completion of the Foundation Year and completing a short application form, students can progress to the rest of the PG Diploma.

If after interview your application is successful, you will be sent a formal offer letter and given a period of time within which to accept.   

We ask that you pay the deposit at this time to reserve and confirm your place.  The balance is then due either in full, or you can pay by way of a schedule of payments further details of which can be sent to you.

Please note, course fees usually increase slightly each year in line with inflation.

Yes, the requirements are that trainees are in therapy with a UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist from 1^st September of the year you begin your foundation year for the PG Diploma.  You are required to undertake 160 hours of weekly therapy throughout the four years (40 hours per year).

The requirements are that a student must have weekly therapy in the modality they are training in.  This means that wherever possible you should find a UKCP accredited Core Process Psychotherapist.  You can use the ‘Find a Therapist’ tool on the Association of Core Process Psychotherapists Website.

If this is not possible or you are unsure about finding a therapist, you can talk this through with the tutors at your interview.

Where you are in an established relationship with a non Core Process Psychotherapist we will not ask you to end this relationship without negotiation.  If your current therapist is not UKCP accredited we will have to talk to you about the implications of this, although again this does not mean ending the relationship immediately.

The training is held at our non-residential venue in Bristol and there is also one 5 day residential each year.  Residentials are currently held at Karuna Dartmoor in Devon.

This is a non-residential training based in Bristol.  If you are not based in Bristol or the UK, you would need to factor in additional travel and accommodation costs.   You will be advised of the venue for your training when you are offered a place on the course. You would then be able to make arrangements for finding suitable accommodation. 

For the first fours years of the training there is a 5 day residential – this would usually be at Karuna Dartmoor in Devon, however the venues will be confirmed when you are offered a place.

Students do not see clients in the foundation year.  This is so that they can deepen into their own enquiry and find their ground before beginning to practice.  In the following year students can begin to see clients whey they have been given ‘Permission to Practice’ by their tutors.  There is then a formal process of clinical contracting with the Institute before students can begin their practice.  We discuss this fully during the training.

Currently we do not have a referral clinic for students to practice, so we cannot refer clients to students.  We will discuss setting up in practice in detail throughout the course.  

This is discussed in the first year of the training and tutors will make suggestions.  However, because students all live in different areas, it is up to the individual to find a suitable local placement. The Institute will provide letters for you to send to the placement and we will do whatever we can to support you in the process.

Permission to practice begins in Year One of the main training following on from the Foundation Year, this means you can begin to build a supervised private psychotherapy practice as the course unfolds.  Current UKCP guidance suggests that trainee psychotherapists charge two thirds of the going price in their area.  It may be by the point of graduation and/or accreditation that you might have a significant psychotherapy practice. This means that it is possible that your work as a Psychotherapist can slowly begin to help with some of the costs of your training as you progress through the course. 

As most of our trainings are monthly modules held at the weekend, many people do the training and work fulltime.    As you begin to see clients in Year One, it can be to your advantage to be able to negotiate part-time or flexible working.  It is possible to see clients in the evenings after work but it can get difficult to fit this in along with your therapy and supervision requirements.

When applications open, course fees are detailed on the website.  

We also have an outline of any additional costs on our costs page.

Currently Karuna Institute is not able to offer help with course fees and it is not possible to get a student loan to cover your student fees.  UKCP does offer a bursary fund which is currently set at £750 which some students have successfully applied for.

https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/join-us/ukcp-bursary/

Currently there is no government Statutory Registration of Psychotherapists in the same way as Doctor’s are state registered. Registration is onto the Professional Standards Authority register which is regulated via the professional bodies UKCP and BACP.  

Karuna Institute is an Organisational member of UKCP.  The PG Diploma in MBCPP is a UKCP accredited training.  This means that once a student has met all the training requirements they can apply for accreditation onto the UKCP register of accredited therapists validated by the Professional Standards Authority.   

Many of our graduates choose to develop and make a living working in private practice, others combine this with part time work, whilst others apply for and work in a variety of agencies, charities or NHS sector.  Please note, we cannot guarantee that the training will lead to a job in the NHS or other sectors.

NHS Trusts sometimes advertise and employ graduates from BACP or UKCP accredited trainings.  Once UKCP accredited, you would be able to apply for any job where the Person Specification requires diploma level therapy training and professional membership of UKCP or equivalent professional association.  It would then also be up to you to demonstrate how you meet other required experience and criteria for any particular role to be shortlisted for an interview.

Jobs are often posted on UKCP/BACP websites for accredited members.   Job postings may be in counselling roles in UK public sector organisations e.g. NHS, Fire Service, London Underground and other types of charities, projects, addiction services, voluntary organisations, universities etc.  Roles may often have ‘counsellor’ or ‘therapist’ in the title.   Many of these job titles are also now integrating into ‘psychological wellbeing’ type roles.

Having UKCP or BACP Accreditation doesn’t automatically guarantee access to a job in the NHS.   UKCP are currently engaging for more recognition of UKCP Psychotherapy trainings within NHS and other organisations with the hope of improving access to better paid roles for members.

During the training, students often work in a combination of private practice and voluntary agency settings.

After Accreditation most psychotherapists work in private practice. However, our training opens the door to many different career paths and is not only about working in private practice. Our Accredited colleagues have worked in many different fields as well as developing successful and thriving private practices.