Looking for a career change? How to train as a couple therapist
Are you looking for a career change? Want an interesting, rewarding career that uses your experience? Find out why training as a couple therapist could be the perfect answer.
It’s not uncommon for women to consider a career change after having children. Returning to the 9-6 treadmill can seem daunting when you have a growing family competing for your time and attention.
And it’s not just increased flexibility that seems more attractive once you become a mum. Many women look for ways they can transfer their considerable skills and experience to a more rewarding career path.
As a couple therapist you can work on your terms and choose from a range of specialisms that fit your particular interests or strengths. You also have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping your clients to enjoy a more fulfilling and happy life.
Healthy relationships are essential
Enjoying a healthy relationship with your partner isn’t just important, it’s essential for emotional fulfilment. The quality of our closest relationships profoundly affects how we feel about ourselves and has measurable impact on our lives and those around us – affecting the emotional, cognitive and physical development of our children, our capacity to work and to be fulfilled in work, and our physical and mental health.
When relationships fail, the consequences are enormous, both to society (an estimated and rising £47 billion) and to adult’s and children’s physical, mental and emotional health. When time is tight, jobs are insecure and finances are stretched, family stability comes under increasing pressure.
TCCR needs more couple therapists
The Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR) is a world-renowned, London-based organisation that offers couple therapy, and their services are more in demand than ever before.
So if you’re considering a career change, and think that couple therapy would fit, they’d love to hear from you. Couple therapy offers an intellectually stimulating and exceptionally rewarding career path, and is a perfect new challenge where your life experience and age count firmly in your favour.
Join a couple therapy course
If you’d like to learn more about couple therapy and explore whether it’s the right career path for you, TCCR run an Introduction to Couple Counselling & Psychotherapy course.
On the course you’ll learn more about couples work, the special character of the marital/couple focus and the theory underpinning their approach. The training will also improve your own personal and professional relationships, giving you greater self-awareness and an enhanced understanding of the dynamics inherent in any family or social group.
By the end of the course, you’ll have a basic understanding of working therapeutically with couples. If you decide this is indeed an area you wish to build a new career in, you can apply for a place on one of TCCR’s Masters programmes.
How does the course work?
The course is 10 weeks long and takes place in the daytime, starting in April, in London. You’ll learn couple psychotherapy theories with special emphasis on the psychodynamic approach, and discover how our different life stages are linked to the developmental stages of relationship in a series of seminars.
Seminar topics include changing trends in family and intimate relationships, and the impact of children on couples, divorce, serial marriages, step-families and bereavement. Issues related to gender, sexuality and ethnicity are also considered throughout the course, and you’ll have the opportunity to develop your clinical skills by both observing and participating in role plays.
The course includes:
- Theory seminars.
- Self-reflective groups.
- Experiential learning workshops.
- Role plays.
- Written work in the form of a diary.
- Support throughout the course from a personal tutor.
- Optional essay.
What does the course lead to?
By working in a small group, you’ll develop a greater awareness of yourself in relation to others, and be able to work more freely, effectively and creatively with people. It will also allow you to apply for the MA in Couple & Individual Psychodynamic Counselling & Psychotherapy at TCCR.
96% of TCCR’s UK-based students, and 100% of their international students, reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their course, and many of TCCR’s students stay on after completing their studies and continue to work in a variety of ways within the organisation.
Who is the course perfect for?
The TCCR Introduction to Couple Counselling & Psychotherapy course is designed for beginners from a wide range of professional backgrounds, with little or no experience.
If you’ve often been described as a good listener, enjoy helping others and are looking for a career change that’s intellectually stimulating whilst offering more flexibility, then this is the ideal course to see whether a career in couples therapy is right for you.
To be eligible for the course you will have an appropriate level of self-awareness, interest and motivation for learning about couples and about therapy.
Jenny’s story
Jenny had spent the last 10 years working in human resources for a global brand. Although she still enjoyed her work, changes in her personal life meant that she needed a more flexible career, one where she could use her people skills and also ‘give back’.
By chance, a friend suggested she consider a career as a therapist and, after doing some research, she found TCCR’s Introduction to Couple Counselling & Psychotherapy Course. Jenny liked the idea of a relationship focus to training, and the Tavistock name was familiar to her, so she knew she’d get a solid foundation as she explored whether this was the way forward for her career.
Jenny is now studying a clinical training at TCCR to become a fully qualified therapist and wants to specialise in Psychosexual & Relationship Therapy.
Train to become a couple therapist
If you’d like to train to become a couple therapist with TCCR, the next London course starts on 14 April 2016 and runs until 30 June 2016. It’s held on Thursdays 11:00am-2:30pm and on two Saturdays (7 May and 18 June). The cost of training is £980, with a non-refundable deposit of £100 and an application fee of £50.
You can find out more about the course, and watch student testimonials and video introductions to the training on the TCCR website.
Apply now to secure your place
Applications for the course starting on 14 April 2016 are open now. If you are interested in learning about couple relationships, you can download an application form here.
Please email your application to training@
This is a sponsored article, but all opinions are our own.
