MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy
Director of Studies: Dr John Hills
This programme will provide you with a strong knowledge base and the expertise to practice as an integrative psychotherapist with a broad range of adult clients in a variety of settings.
Philosophical basis of the Programme
We start from the position that psychotherapy is the considered and intentional use of a relationship, grounded in the therapeutic alliance, in the service of the goals of the client. We view the psychotherapeutic relationship as a co-constructed endeavour in which both the client and the therapist are active partners.
Given the centrality of the intentional use of the relationship and of the self of the psychotherapist in contributing to successful outcomes, we put emphasis on self-reflective practice, self-understanding, interpersonal encounter and a sensitivity to attunement, mis-attunement and repair in maintaining an effective therapeutic relationship. By co-creating and maintaining a clearly formulated and secure therapeutic alliance, practitioner and client alike are enabled to focus upon complex interpersonal and intrapersonal issues.
From this intersubjective perspective we focus on both the explicit verbal levels of communication and the implicit, non-verbal levels of relating; on the conscious and non-conscious dimensions of communication. We view the change process as happening at the complex interface of these overlapping dimensions of experience. In the words of Allan Schore (2012) we regard psychotherapy as not solely the ‘talking cure’ but very much the ‘communicating cure’ at multiple levels of experience and interaction. Such an intersubjective approach to psychotherapy integration requires that psychotherapists develop an understanding of the self in its multiple facets in order to exercise flexibility, judgment, range, skills, intuition and imagination in the appropriate use of the various dimensions of a therapeutic relationship in response to the current relational needs of the client.
We are not teaching a particular model of integration, rather we are supporting participants in the challenging task of learning to integrate theories and competencies from several traditions in the field of psychotherapy into an evolving model of their own.
The training embraces a clinical developmental view of the evolving self, whilst at the same time stressing the importance of the impact of the social, cultural, economic, ecological and political context on the individual’s self identity.
This training will require of the psychotherapist a commitment to maintain and tolerate several views, even when these may appear to be contradictory, in an effort not to foreclose prematurely on a particular point of view. These differing views serve as a system of continuing self-supervision so that any position taken is a flexible one and responsive to the particular circumstances of a particular client at a particular time in a particular context. Such an approach to psychotherapy integration can serve as an underpinning for both brief-term and longer-term psychotherapy.
Awards on completion of programme:
- 180 Credits achieved at level 7
- MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy
- Metanoia Clinical Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy leading to UKCP Registration
This programme is validated and quality assured by Middlesex University and you will receive a Middlesex award on successful completion.
Applications for Faculty 1 programmes
We shall be opening to applications at the end of January 2024. In the meantime, why not come to an open event to find out more?
Middlesex University Programme Spec
Metanoia Institute has begun the process to be able to award its own degrees. This will not affect students starting in 2023. Please see here for further details
