Doctor of Clinical Psychology

Supervision and research areas

There are three main aspects to the programme:

1. Taught component

Over the three years of training, the taught academic programme seeks to enable trainees to develop the academic, clinical, and research skills to prepare them for a practice in clinical psychology. This is achieved through a combination of theoretical and skills based teaching. We place an importance on the concepts of transferable skills and there is an expectation that trainees will learn to apply these skills across a range of clinical settings.

In addition to clinical skills based teaching, the programme covers a variety of conceptual frameworks for understanding and working with psychological distress, covering individual, (cognitive and behavioural therapies, and psychodynamic psychotherapy), systemic and community perspectives. Throughout the programme an emphasis is placed on theory-practice links and this is supported by regular reflective practice seminars in which trainees discuss clinical cases.

2. Research

Research is a key element of training to be a Clinical Psychologist and is integral to the programme. Research teaching aims to enable trainees to become “research literate”, to develop and refine the necessary skills to evaluate their own clinical work, and to devise, project manage and implement both service-based and academic research. Trainees undertake:

• A small-scale service evaluation study to facilitate quality improvement.
• An original research study, submitted as a portfolio thesis, and examined at viva.

Assessments relevant to each of these three aspects of the programme are scheduled throughout the three years of training.

3. Clinical Practice Placements

Over the three years of training, trainees will undertake a series of formal supervised clinical placements of six months to a year duration. The placements will be in a variety of speciality areas in which clinical psychologists practice and provide trainees with a firm foundation in assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation skills.

Successful completion of this programme confers eligibility for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society and full membership of the Division of Clinical Psychology.

The Health and Care Professions Council has approved this programme.