Systemic Family Therapy MSc

The MSc in Systemic Family Therapy is a part-time course over 24 months, accredited by the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice. Successful completion of the course makes graduates eligible to register with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

The course is designed for those who wish to work in the NHS or seek employment in social care agencies or independent practice. The course is also appropriate for a wide range of mental health professionals including; psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, teachers and counsellors.

Make an impact

The Leeds Family Therapy and Research Centre has been training therapists for over 25 years to help individuals, couples and families find ways of tackling their problems. You will develop an array of skills and insight needed to make a positive difference through your work.

The MSc course has been running since 1996 and is preceded by the Foundation and the Intermediate level courses, helping students to determine whether the systemic approach suits them and their area of work.

You can also study this subject at other levels:

• Systemic Practice (Foundation)

• Systemic Practice (Intermediate)

• PGCert Systemic Practice (combines Foundation and Intermediate levels over 2 years)

• Family Therapy and Systemic Supervision – contact us for more information

Please scroll down and read the essential application guidance before applying.

Accreditation

This course is accredited by the Association for Family Therapy & Systemic Practice and fulfils the training requirements for qualifying level as a Family Therapist (also known as a Systemic Psychotherapist). Read more on the Association for Family Therapy website.

The MSc is a part-time course and has one or two day-long teaching sessions per month and weekly four-hour clinic placement. There are supervision clinics located in various parts of northern England, currently in Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Runcorn, Sheffield, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and Wakefield. This means students can do the most significant amount of work closer to their own area. Clinic locations for 2021/2023 cohort will be confirmed in Summer 2021.

Once you successfully graduate from the course, you will be eligible to register with the UKCP as a systemic therapist. You should then be able to practice as an independent practitioner in the NHS, Social Services or other mental health agencies.

Develop and connect

From the course, you will have gained a depth of knowledge of systems theory, cybernetics, constructivism, and social constructionism. You will have an understanding of the main therapeutic models in the systemic field (Structural, Milan, Solution Focused, Narrative, Collaborative Dialogic) and the skills associated with them. You will have acquired a wide range of approaches to draw upon and will work with client preferences and strengths, and be able to work with families, individuals and groups of people who hold different perspectives and may be drawn to different actions. The course will enable you to develop the skills to work with more severe emotional/behavioural/situational presentations and with cases that contain multi agency complexity.

Upon successfully completing the course, you will have an appreciation of individual psychological development and family life cycle and the way in which these stages impact upon and are influenced by significant others. People and their difficulties will be understood in the context of interpersonal relationships and wider institutional and cultural discourses. You will have developed a working knowledge of other psychological and psychotherapeutic theories (psychodynamic, attachment, cognitive behavioural) such that they may be related to systemic work or posed as an alternative.

You will be able to use systemic skills in work with teams and other professionals in a collaborative and coordinated manner. You will have developed an appreciation of the code of ethics and practice within the profession and an awareness of the large scale and smaller operations of power and attend to these in practice. You will be responsive to issues of risk and safety for clients. You will have developed a capacity for self-reflexive practice and see it as part of ongoing professional discipline.

The course will develop your ability to make use of published systemic theory and to be able to critique current research in family therapy. You should develop a high level of ability in articulating theory and practice in relation to case material. Graduates of the course will have skills in teaching others systemic ideas and some basic experience in contributing a systemic perspective in supervision.

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.

For more information and a full list of typical modules available on this course, please read Systemic Family Therapy MSc in the course catalogue

Modules

Year 1

Year 2

Learning and teaching

You will be taught through lectures, practical classes, tutorials, seminars and supervised research projects.

We make extensive use of IT and a wide range of materials to enable students to study at their own pace and in their own time to enhance and extend the material taught formally.

On this course you’ll be taught by professionally qualified experts You may also be taught by leading specialists in specific areas of clinical practice.

On this course you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

Achievement for the degree of Master will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme.

We monitor your progress through attendance, participation in lectures and tutorials, clinical supervision, feedback on written assignments, exam, recorded practice review, teaching practice, case presentation etc.

Entry requirements

• You will already have professional training (normally at graduate level) in mental health or social care, eg social work, nursing, clinical psychology, psychiatry, or relevant equivalent professional experience. Further details can be found in the APEL document (Accreditation of Prior Experience and Learning).

• You will already have successfully completed Intermediate level training in Systemic Practice or equivalent.

• While you are studying with us, you will be required to maintain your practice in your own agency setting and are advised to participate in systemic supervision by a qualified family therapist/supervisor. Your work place may be able to provide or support this. If this is not possible you need to ensure that your supervisor and manager are supportive of your practice developments and your work is supervised in general clinical terms.

• You are advised to plan for the study requirement of the course which amounts to an estimate 635 hours private study, 18- 20 course days and 40 x 5 hour (weekly) clinic placements per year. Additional time may be required to fulfil statutory and mandatory training in your placement NHS service.

• You will have the support of your current manager. Our experience is that this training offers considerable benefits to your work place and population you serve. The support of your manager is an important contributor to this process and we have enclosed a letter for your manager in the MSc Supplementary Information Document which briefly outlines the training and asks for their support for your application. It you are unable to gain support at this stage, it is important that you contact the course team to discuss this as early as possible.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

Part of the training includes clinical practice with families in NHS training clinics and you will be working by honorary contract. It is important to note that the NHS cover would not cover all aspects of any claim made against you. It is therefore a requirement that you have professional indemnity cover or other appropriate insurance and you can demonstrate this on commencement of the course.

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.5 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English

International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Science (6 weeks) and Language for Science: General Science (10 weeks). 

If you need to study for longer than 10 weeks, read more about our postgraduate pre-sessional English course.

How to apply

Applications to the course will open on 7th January 2021

An initial application pack will be available to download from this page from the 7th January 2021. This application pack covers professional training, current professional practice, interest in systemic therapeutic practice, professional and academic references. This pack will be returned to the course team for initial assessment.

Application deadline: Friday 9th April 2021

Eligible applicants will be invited to an interview for which preparation will be required. Interviews will be held in May 2021.

Apply

This link takes you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.

If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Health Education England HEE NHS sponsorship for course fees

A limited number of full bursaries are being made available to NHS applicants. This funding can only be used for pay course fees of an AFT accredited qualifying level Family and Systemic Psychotherapy training course.

The funding is to be agreed by 15th January 2021. If you may be eligible, please contact the course lead Marie McGovern on m.mcgovern@leeds.ac.uk for advice on the process of application. Please note that this funding does not guarantee a place on the course in advance of the formal application process.

• The opportunity is open to qualified staff (with a permanent contract) from any eligible discipline who meet the qualifying criteria for an AFT accredited qualifying level course

• Applicants should already be working within an NHS Trust or other NHS commissioned healthcare provider in England

• The provider will be required to create a family therapy post (minimum 0.4 wte spent delivering family therapy) with a commitment for the trainee to move into this post on successful completion of training.

• The provider will be required to provide suitable placement learning experiences for the period of training and release the trainee for the time required to undertake placement learning and course attendance.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

School of Medicine Taught Postgraduate Policy 2021

Fees

• UK: £10,750 (total)
• International: £23,500 (total)

Read more about paying fees and charges.

Brexit 
Visit our Brexit page for the latest information on the effect of the UK's exit from the EU on current students and applicants to the University.

For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees.

Part-time fees
Fees for part-time courses are normally calculated based on the number of credits you study in a year compared to the equivalent full-time course. For example, if you study half the course credits in a year, you will pay half the full-time course fees for that year.

Additional cost information

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more about additional costs

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government.  Find out more at Masters funding overview.

Specialist Skills and Post Registration Development (SSPRD) funding by Health Education England in Yorkshire and the Humber

The Specialist Skills Post Registration Development (SSPRD) General Learning Credit (GLC) provides funding for students on some trainings in eight priority areas including ‘Skills and development for staff working with service users with Mental Health problems (Mental Health including learning disabilities)’ through which students working in NHS in Yorkshire and Humberside can receive training bursaries to cover the fees for the courses. Funding may be available for 2019/20, funding cannot be guaranteed for subsequent years in light of ongoing changes within Health Education England and local training priorities.

For more information about the funding, please refer to the Application Guidance Systemic Practice & Family Therapy which will be made available here in January 2021.

Successful graduates are able to register with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and apply for family therapy posts. Some Family Therapist posts specify a prior professional qualification and graduates who do not have this (APEL students) may not be eligible for application to these posts.

Careers support

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.

For details of clinical placement, please see modules FAMT5470M and FAMT5480M.