PGDip in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Severe Mental Health Problems)

This innovative course offers comprehensive, specialist training in CBT with a strong grounding in current psychological and CBT theories and research. It is designed to offer an in-depth understanding of the range of difficulties experienced by those who have suffered adversity and psychological trauma, alongside an in-depth understanding of the development of personality traits.

The course highlights the CBT principles, theory and research that can guide optimal treatment delivery to people struggling with the legacy of trauma and/or with personality issues.

Twenty-one days of training and supervision are spread over an academic year, between November and July. Five days of teaching in November (a combination of taught material and self-directed study), are followed by four intensive four-day teaching blocks in January, March, May and July. At least one of these teaching blocks will be held in Oxford and in-person attendance is compulsory.

There will be four summative assignments spread out over the period of training.

Over the duration of the specialism, you will be normally expected to complete a course of therapy (under supervision) with at least three patients, where at least one patient has a trauma history and at least one patient has personality issues. You will be encouraged to engage in CBT with more than three patients before the end of this training. Therapy must demonstrate the specialist CBT skills and knowledge relevant to working with patients who have experienced psychological trauma and/or struggle with personality issues.

Small group supervision from specialists is offered within each block and between training blocks (12 supervision sessions in total) and you will be required to secure additional field supervision. One training day in each block is open to a wider clinical audience. This enables course participants to interact and share with a broader group of specialist practitioners.

This specialism seeks to enable you to develop a sound understanding of cognitive behavioural models of psychosis and bipolar presentations, and the evidence underpinning these approaches. You will have the opportunity to gain competence in engaging, assessing and developing collaborative formulations with individuals with psychotic and bipolar presentations. You will also have the opportunity to develop the skills needed to deliver high quality, individualised, evidence-based interventions in accordance with THE National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, the competence framework for work with people with psychosis and bipolar disorder (Roth & Pilling 2013), and the National Health Service England national curriculum for CBT for severe mental health presentations.

You will benefit from teaching from renowned experts as well as from close supervision enabling you to develop new skills.

The course comprises teaching over three terms running from October to the end of June. Teaching and supervision typically take place on Thursdays and you should keep all Thursdays during term time free for course related teaching, supervision, and study. There will also be some Fridays required for teaching and supervision (a total of seven Fridays across term one and the start of term two). The majority of teaching will be delivered online, but students are required to attend a total of seven days in person in Oxford (2 days in term 1, 3 days in term 2, and 2 days in term 3).

This is in line with BABCP requirements for face-to-face teaching. Over the duration of this specialism, you will normally be expected to complete a course of therapy (under supervision) with at least four patients, where at least one patient has a bipolar presentation and at least two patients are experiencing active symptoms of psychosis. It is recommended to work with more clients than this to ensure that you have suitable cases to write up and provide recordings for assessment.

There are five summative assessments over the year which will take the form of two recordings, one case presentation, one case report, and a training portfolio.

You will have a course supervisor and course tutor to support you to make the best of this learning opportunity. Small group supervision fortnightly in term time focuses on the development of specific cognitive and behavioural skills for working with clients with psychosis and bipolar presentations.

The learning objectives of the course are to be able to:

• Understand how theory, research and clinical practice inform one another in cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis and bipolar presentations, and contribute to the ongoing development of the field
• Demonstrate a well-developed repertoire of enhanced cognitive behavioural therapy skills
• Apply these skills effectively with people experiencing psychosis,  bipolar disorder and associated difficulties within their own clinical practice
• Establish and maintain warm, respectful, collaborative relationships, and understand and manage difficulties within the therapeutic alliance (including their own contribution) using a cognitive behavioural conceptual framework
• Identify and resolve theoretical, practical, interpersonal, personal or ethical challenges in clinical practice through consultation and supervision

You will be expected to have access to treatment settings in which you can regularly deliver CBT for psychosis and bipolar, supported by ongoing clinical and CBT supervision to enable the development and refinement of your skills.

In year one, teaching takes place one day a week and is delivered via a combination of online and some in-person days in Oxford. 

All teaching sessions use a variety of methods, building from strong theoretical foundations to the development of evidence-based skills. The emphasis is on participation, to facilitate the development of skills that translate into real-world clinical practice. 

The curriculum is structured around the Minimum Training Standards for accreditation as a CBT therapist in the UK. This begins with the theoretical underpinnings of CBT and its core competencies, moving to teaching the key evidence-based CBT interventions for treating common mental health problems. In the third term, the focus widens to developing skills to work with greater complexity, such as comorbidity, chronicity and systemic factors.

Each teaching day includes small group clinical supervision with a course tutor, where you will have the opportunity to review your CBT training cases to foster further skills development. (This is in addition to compulsory field supervision of clinical work outlined under Clinical practice.)

The teaching schedule for year two will be dependent on the specialist pathway chosen. Reading, completion of written assignments and presentations will be undertaken in addition to the teaching days. Many students find it effective to set aside at least six to seven hours a week for private study.

This course is designed to provide training for therapists, and clinical practice is a key compulsory component of the learning. All assessments are based on the clinical practice you undertake during the course. You will be responsible for arranging access to suitable training cases and engaging a CBT field supervisor to fulfil the clinical practice requirements of the course. 

These are as follows:

• Full CBT treatment of a minimum of 8 adult (aged 18 years and over) cases, over the two years, covering a range of clinical presentations (full details will be provided to successful applicants prior to the start of the course)
• Completion of a minimum of 200 supervised hours of supervised clinical practice (including the 8 cases above)
• CBT training cases must be supervised by an accredited CBT therapist (refer to the Supervision section of this page for further details)

In the first term, cases should be suitable for novice CBT therapists (ie mild-moderate presentations of common mental health problems such as those likely to present within primary care mental health settings) and where core cognitive behavioural therapy skills can be practised and refined on a regular basis. This may require liaison with a service other than that where you routinely work.

From the second term, you will need to continue to access training cases suitable for CBT interventions, but these can be more complex (eg with co-morbidity, longer duration or involving systemic issues, such as those likely to present in secondary care mental health settings).

Official course title

Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Severe Mental Health Problems)

Award

Course code

TD_GT6D9P1

This course is part-time. Part time students are required to attend course-related activities in Oxford.

Reading and completion of written assignments will be undertaken in addition to the teaching days outlined above. You should expect to require around seven hours per week for private study.

Some of the teaching days on this course may be made available to a wider audience as workshops open to the public via the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre. All participants will be expected to have an appropriate level of competence to participate fully.

The attendance requirements for the course vary depending on your chosen pathway. Please refer to the Pathway selection section of this page for full details.

This course is designed to enable students to meet the minimum training standards for British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) accreditation as a CBT psychotherapist. It is currently BABCP accredited at Level 1 and is seeking Level 2 accreditation.

All students have free access to the full catalogue of Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre online training library, comprising an extensive programme of video demonstrations and tutorials on a range of CBT skills and clinical presentations.

The virtual learning platform for the course contains a wide variety of resources to supplement the live teaching and to direct self-study. The department provides various IT facilities, including the Student Computing Facility which provides individual PCs for your use.

The Oxford Lifelong Learning Library, one of the Bodleian Libraries, is situated in Rewley House. The department aims to support the wide variety of subjects covered by departmental courses at many academic levels. The department also has a collection of around 73,000 books together with periodicals. The Jessop Reading Room adjoining the library is available for study.

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre and this role will usually be performed by the Course Director. Small group supervision takes place regularly in each of the specialist pathways. You are responsible for arranging regular CBT supervision, for your CBT training cases, from a BABCP-accredited Field Supervisor that you meet with for a minimum of one hour of case supervision fortnightly. Supervisors should hold Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist accreditation with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP). It is not a requirement that field supervisors are accredited as CBT supervisors.

Successful international applicants should seek guidance from the course team regarding suitable supervision arrangements for their CBT training cases.

Supervisors include Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre core staff and associates. It is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. A suitable supervisor may be found outside the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre.

Summative assessment requirements vary according to the specialism chosen in year two.

Year one assessment

• One Case Presentation of up to 20 minutes duration.
• Two Clinical Recordings – Clinical recordings are rated using the Assessment of Core CBT Skills (ACCS) scale, a standardised measure of CBT clinical skills.
• One Case Report of not more than 4,000 words.

Specialism 1. Psychological Trauma and Personality Development

• One Clinical Recording – Clinical recordings are rated using the Assessment of Core CBT Skills (ACCS) scale.
• One oral Case Presentation of up to 20 minutes duration – this must include background theory of relevance, assessment information, a preliminary formulation, implications for treatment, an account of treatment and refection.
• One Clinical Assessment of not more than 2,000 words – The purpose of this case report is to demonstrate your grasp of how cognitive theory is applied with individual traumatised patients and/or those with personality issues, presenting the information clearly and concisely.
• One full Case Report of not more than 4,000 words – This report will require you to demonstrate your understanding and ability to assess, formulate and safely carry out an effective treatment intervention that follows logically from your theoretically informed conceptualisation; to evaluate its outcome; and to reflect on the treatment you have provided and on the patient’s response to treatment.
• One Portfolio of training – This evidences every aspect of your CBT training, including teaching, completed assessments and supervised clinical practice. It should be completed contemporaneously throughout the course and is assessed at the end of year two.

Specialism 2. Psychosis and Bipolar

• Two Clinical Recordings
• One oral Case Presentation of up to 20 minutes duration
• One written Case Report of not more than 6,000 words
• One Portfolio of training – This evidences every aspect of your CBT training, including teaching, completed assessments and supervised clinical practice. It should be completed contemporaneously throughout the course and is assessed at the end of year two.

The two clinical recordings each consist of a complete therapy session and are assessed using the Assessment of Core CBT Skills (ACCS), an observation-based measure of CBT competence. The recordings provide evidence of students' ability to deliver competent, evidence-based CBT interventions in their clinical practice.

The written case report and oral case presentation require students to present and critically evaluate their clinical work with a course client. These assessments evaluate students' ability to undertake assessment, develop collaborative cognitive behavioural formulations, deliver evidence-based interventions, and reflect critically on their clinical practice and learning.

Completion of the course provides access to a growing network of course graduates and to an ongoing programme of continuous professional development offered by the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre (OCTC). Further supervision through OCTC may also be negotiated. 

This award forms the foundation for further professional and clinical development, which can be pursued within the larger framework of the OCTC/University of Oxford CBT programme. The programme offers specialist training, leading to a Postgraduate Diploma. Further training can lead to the MSc in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Clinical) or MSc in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Research).

This course is offered by Oxford Lifelong Learning

• Course page on the department's website
• Funding information from the department
• Academic staff
• Departmental research
• Graduate School at Oxford Lifelong Learning
• Contact details

^†Combined figure for all Cognitive Behavioural Therapy PGCerts and PGDips
*Applications for entry in 2026-27

• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in a relevant subject.

For applicants with a bachelor's degree from the USA, the minimum overall GPA that is normally required to meet the undergraduate-level requirement is 3.5 out of 4.0.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

Applicants are normally expected to have at least two year's post-qualification clinical experience, and:

• hold a core mental health profession as specified on the BABCP Core Professions List; OR
• hold the equivalent of a core profession as defined by BABCP's Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSA) criteria. For successful applicants, this should be evidenced by providing a completed KSA Portfolio and will be a condition of offer. Please refer to the BABCP website for details of KSA requirements. Successful applicants joining the course via the KSA route will be expected to provide a completed KSA portfolio for assessment. Passing this will be a condition of offer.

Publications are not expected.

Interviews are normally held as part of the admissions process.

Applicants will be shortlisted in accordance with their ability to meet the criteria for admissions. Interviews will usually be held four to six weeks after the application deadline.

Interviews be held online, and will be conducted by two members of the course team. They will usually last about 45 minutes, or up to 1 hour, and include questions about your professional background and either a role-play to assess clinical skills or a brief presentation on a relevant topic.

Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the department's website.

Matriculation confers membership of the University on students. Students who enrol on this course will not be matriculated and will not become a member of an Oxford college. Although not formally members of the University, non-matriculated students are expected to observe the same rules and regulations as matriculated students. Further information about matriculation is available on the Oxford Students website.

Your statement should be written in English and explain your motivation for applying for the course at Oxford, your relevant experience and education, the specific specialism you plan to undertake in Year 2, and how you plan to use what you will learn in your future career.

During the course, you will be expected to have access to treatment settings with regular clinical and CBT supervision where cognitive behavioural therapy skills can be practised and refined on a regular basis. Therefore, you should describe how you will gain access to suitable training cases and regular CBT supervision during your time on the course. These arrangements will be discussed in detail at interview, should you be shortlisted.

This will be assessed for:

• your motivation for applying to this particular course;
• your relevant academic, research, or practical experience;
• your ability to commit sufficient time to study and fulfil all elements outlined in the course description if you are applying for part-time study; and
• and the areas of study within the subject that interest you.

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0)1865 270388