Professional Doctorate in Advanced Practice and Research: Systemic Psychotherapy (M10)

Course overview

This course is the longest-standing systemic doctorate in the UK and offers experienced practitioners, managers and educators the opportunity for advanced professional development, and an applied research training.

It is uniquely arranged with other professional doctorates covering consultation and the organisation and social care and social work, making for a multidisciplinary student body and enriching learning experience.

Course outline

This programme engages with the realities of your current working experience and its emotional demands and complexities, helping you to respond to these more reflectively and effectively, and with increased confidence in your capacity to occupy your role. We aim to help you find direction in your career, in a manner that connects with your professional passion and curiosity, but also enhances your abilities for reflexive leadership both practically and intellectually.

Doctoral students consistently feedback the relevance of participation in this programme for the development of their thinking and practice in their work setting. Many students have the support of their employers to conduct research on clinical or organizational topics, which makes a valuable contribution to the work of their service and their own professional performance. This course comprises two years of ‘taught’ work and a minimum of two years applied research leading to submission of a 40,000 word doctoral thesis.

In years one and two, you will attend seminars focusing on systemic psychotherapy enquiry and its relationship to contemporary ideas and research activity in sociology, social anthropology and social psychology including qualitative as well as quantitative approaches. You will undertake an observation from a constructivist perspective and participate in seminars on data analysis and methodological reflexivity. You will also engage with theory and research around the contemporary systemic psychotherapy context and complexity in practice- based enquiry.

During the first two years research methods lectures and seminars are shared with students on other Professional Doctorate programmes, making for a rich inter-disciplinary learning experience.

By the end of year two you will have developed a clear proposal for your research, and in subsequent years you will be regularly supervised on your project by an experienced team of systemic psychotherapy academics and practitioners. Research data analysis seminars and symposia offer opportunities for group data analysis and problem solving, and strong peer support.

Each year you will also attend the annual Tavistock Doctoral Conference where students present work in progress, display posters, and learn from the experience of doctoral graduates.

In years one and two attendance is for one and a half days per. From year three onwards, attendance is more flexible with research seminars once a term and monthly individual research supervision.

Who is this course for?

This course is for you if you already hold a Masters degree in systemic psychotherapy, hold a professional registration want to explore issues further and contribute to research. The course uniquely combines therapeutic practice principles and an emphasis on social science, including social anthropology and issues of diversity and reflexivity.

In order to undertake this course, we ask that you: have a Master’s degree in systemic psychotherapy or equivalent - this must include specific knowledge of systemic psychotherapy theory and practice; hold a professional systemic registration (e.g. AFT or UKCP); have some prior knowledge of research. As part of our application process we ask that you submit a proposal as we are interested in the thoughts and ideas that you have about your research interests. Please note that this does not need to be a fully worked out proposal, just an idea at application stage.