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LOCATION
Stratford Campus
Location Fees and Funding
Here's the fees and funding information for each year of this course
Overview
Each of us has a set of everyday personal strengths which we play down or perhaps don't even notice because they seem ordinary, ho-hum and of little consequence.
Resilience is our ability to stay present to and recover from life's difficulties and challenges. It includes our capacity to make the best of an unwanted situation, and to cope with the stress associated with finding the strength to do so.
Research indicates that resilience-building efforts can improve both individual and interpersonal wellbeing, all whilst lessening the risk of moods such as depression and anxiety.
You'll use these and other insights to discover and experience the fundamentals of engendering much more in the way of curiosity and resilience in the helping work you offer others. This course is designed to help you acquire the knowledge and skills required to do so in the context of various professional activities. Examples include coaching, mentoring, education, medicine, social work, human resources management, nursing, counselling, medicine, business, law, advocacy, prison and rehabilitation services, youth work, police work, charity aid work, pastoral care, palliative care, community services and mental-health services.
We are in support of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion by our mode of delivery (i.e., monthly Friday evening and Saturday day block sessions), as this allows a broader range of working professionals to participate. It is possible, and indeed encouraged, to apply for this training on what is termed a 'distance-learning' basis, which permits individuals who reside outside the UK to participate alongside those who are within commuting distance of our campus.
What makes this course different
Learn from renowned subject-area experts
The training features world-class CBT trainer Dr Christine A Padesky as specialist guest lecturer and advisor. She co-authored Mind Over Mood, voted by the BABCP as the most influential CBT book of all time.
Network with likeminded others in the helping professions
Training is offered in an 'executive-style' format, which appeals to busy working practitioners in health and social care, nursing, social work, advocacy, education, psychology, psychotherapy, as well as other allied helping professions.
Discover a set of breakthrough neuroscientific principles
In the context of emergent research on neuroplasticity, mindfulness and the neural correlates at play in mood-states such as depression, neuroscience offers fresh insights into your emotions, behaviour and personality.
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) struggles with an undeserved and inaccurate public perception as a 'paint-by-numbers' form of psychological support which fails to enact long-lasting change. Through this innovative focus on personal strengths, I'm keen to dispel the many myths about CBT and to share the fascinating truths of why CBT is so widely embraced by the NHS, yet so poorly understood by the public."
Max Eames,
Course Leader, Strengths-Based Approaches in CBT
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
This course is designed to give you the opportunity to develop and demonstrate an understanding of both the art and science of strengths-based approaches in CBT, particularly as viewed through the lens of relevant neuroscientific underpinnings. These approaches will be framed as adjuncts to evidence-based practice; as such, an emphasis will be placed on the specific maps to what is known as 'classic' CBT.
You will develop and demonstrate skills which can be directly applied in clinical and other helping settings, offering what tends to be a more positive experience than helping endeavours which are solely problem-focused in their nature. It is anticipated that embracing this perspective will inform and enhance your existing competences, all by means of experiencing, first-hand, the distinctions involved in adopting a strengths-based approach.
The full Postgraduate Certificate training comprises two core modules, either of which can also be taken independently as stand-alone short courses which are titled similarly to the modules.
In the module 'Strengths-Based Approaches: Principles, Qualities and Antecedents' (or in the similarly-titled short course whose content is equivalent), a strong emphasis will be placed on equipping you to critically reflect on the theoretical and research underpinnings of strengths-based approaches in CBT. Having acquired an induction to these matters, you'll be encouraged to critically reflect on your own approaches toward helping as you experience and practise a carefully curated array of skills and techniques associated with strengths-based approaches.
Whilst making various personal and professional discoveries, you'll be introduced to some of the many ways of assessing and formulating a help-seeker's challenges from a strengths-based perspective. You'll also gain confidence in making a set of critical judgements on the application of strengths-based approaches to a range of mental-health conditions. Doing so will induct you to a critical reflection on emerging developments in relation to theories of emotion, neuroscience and the use of experiential interventions to impact all levels of a given schema, i.e., body, emotion, cognition and behaviour.
In the module 'Strengths-Based Interventions: Evidence, Practice and Mechanisms of Change' (or in the similarly-titled short course whose content is equivalent), the emphasis is placed on applying in practice your critical reflections on your own approaches to helping, with the opportunity to experience and practise a carefully curated array of skills and techniques associated with strengths-based approaches.
These activities will enhance your ability to apply in practice your critical reflections on emerging development in relation to theories of emotion, neuroscience and the use of experiential interventions.
We consistently review our courses to ensure we are up to date with industry changes and requirements from our graduates. As a result, our modules are subject to change.
DOWNLOAD COURSE SPECIFICATIONS
MODULES
- Core Modules
Strengths-Based Approaches: Principles, Qualities and Antecedents CloseStrengths-Based Approaches: Principles, Qualities and Antecedents
This module is designed to give you the opportunity to acquire a fully experimental understanding of both the art and science of strengths-based approaches in CBT, particularly as viewed through the lens of relevant neuroscientific underpinnings. These approaches will be framed as adjuncts to evidence-based practice; as such, an emphasis will be placed on the specific maps to what is known as 'classic' CBT.
You will acquire skills which can be directly applied in clinical and other helping settings, offering what tends to be a more positive experience than helping endeavours which are solely problem-focused in their nature. It is anticipated that adopting this perspective will inform and improve your helping work, all whilst giving you an opportunity to experience, first-hand, the distinctions involved in adopting such approaches.
Strengths-Based Interventions: Evidence, Practice and Mechanisms of Change CloseStrengths-Based Interventions: Evidence, Practice and Mechanisms of Change
This module is designed to give you the opportunity to develop and demonstrate an understanding of both the art and science of strengths-based approaches in CBT, particularly as viewed through the lens of relevant neuroscientific underpinnings. These approaches will be framed as adjuncts to evidence-based practice; as such, an emphasis will be placed on the specific maps to what is known as 'classic' CBT.
You will develop and demonstrate skills which can be directly applied in clinical and other helping settings, offering what tends to be a more positive experience than helping endeavours which are solely problem-focused in their nature. It is anticipated that adopting this perspective will inform and improve your helping work, all whilst enhancing the opportunity to experience, first-hand, the distinctions involved in adopting such approaches.
HOW YOU'LL LEARN
You'll be taught by a range of staff, many of whom run their own practices or work in practice, which ensures that the practice-led research which is disseminated in the learning environment, or actually takes place within it, is relevant to your industry and practice. It also means that skills-practice labs are well-positioned to take advantage of myriad professional networks which are associated with the staff team.
Within each module there are theoretical elements and practise-based elements, with the intention that knowledge and skills are always introduced and developed in relation to professional practitioner settings and real-world applicability. Thus, both the notion of evidence-based practice and that of practice-based evidence are valued, with the sense that each informs the other and is inextricably linked to the requirements of your day-to-day personal, professional and/or vocational settings.
When not attending timetabled lectures, seminars, skills-practice sessions and other activities, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-directed learning and study.
These efforts will typically involve reading academic journal articles and texts, working on individual and group projects, undertaking various coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for the submission of your assessment portfolio.
Your independent learning is supported throughout by a range of state-of-the-art facilities, including an array of online resources, the campus library and Moodle - our curated VLE platform which guides and shapes the scope and direction of your self-directed learning activities.
Students will not be required to have supervision or personal-therapy arrangements in place over the duration of the course; neither to meet the number of practice hours expected nor to meet the course's assessment criteria. Students who for their own reasons wish to have supervision and/or personal therapy over the duration of the course are responsible for securing any such support, doing so solely by their own arrangement and at their own cost.
Our academic support team provides help and assistance in a vast range of areas, including but not limited to support for those who live with seen and/or unseen disabilities.
When you embark on your studies, we will introduce you to your Academic Advisor. This a member of staff who will provide you with academic guidance, typically be a support throughout the entirety of your time at the university, and show you how to make best use of the full array of assistance, support and resources available to you as a student.
For each module (or similarly titled short course whose content is equivalent), you will typically devote in the region of 45 hours to timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars, skills-practice sessions and either individual or group tutorials. Contact hours may vary slightly.
You should also plan on devoting in the region of 255 hours to self-directed independent study. Activities which are likely to be involved are self-directed reading and revising, portfolio assessment preparation, online and/or on-campus skills-acquisition activities, peer study and groupwork, assimilation of formative feedback and reflection on summative feedback. Your individual requirements may vary slightly.
Your individualised timetable is normally available to students within 48 hours of enrolment. This training is being offered in an 'executive-style' format (i.e., approximately monthly on Friday evenings and Saturday days) in order to accommodate the needs of busy working professionals who would rather not take time off from their weekday commitments.
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course is intended to attract up to 60 students per year. Lecture sizes are normally conducted in a large-group format, whereas various small-group activities such as skills-practice sessions, seminars and tutorials are broken up into smaller group in order to heighten the opportunity for meaningful peer feedback and the development of professional networks amongst your peers.
HOW YOU'LL BE ASSESSED
The full Postgraduate Certificate training comprises two core modules, either of which can also be taken independently as stand-alone short courses which are titled similarly to the modules.
In the module 'Strengths-Based Approaches: Principles, Qualities and Antecedents' (or in the similarly-titled short course whose content is equivalent), you will prepare a portfolio in which the emphasis is placed on the acquisition of strengths-based, cognitive and/or behavioural theory, comprising: (a) acquisition of theory, (b) analysis of skills, and (c) a case study. Considered as a whole piece of work, these three elements comprise 100% of your assessment for the module.
In the module 'Strengths-Based Interventions: Evidence, Practice and Mechanisms of Change' (or in the similarly-titled short course whose content is equivalent), you will prepare a portfolio in which the emphasis is placed on the demonstration of strengths-based, cognitive and/or behavioural skills and processes applied in practice, comprising: (a) application of theory in practice, (b) analysis of skills, and (c) a reflective journal. Considered as a whole piece of work, these three elements comprise 100% of your assessment for the module.
CAMPUS and FACILITIES
Stratford Campus, Water Lane, Stratford
WHO TEACHES THIS COURSE
The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.
Max Eames
Max teaches on the first undergraduate course in London to achieve accredited status from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
See full profile
Cynthia H.Y.Fu
Professor Cynthia Fu investigates depression and how they change with different therapies, antidepressant medication and neurostimulation.
See full profileWhat we're researching
At the University of East London we are working on the some of the big issues that will define our future; from sustainable architecture and ethical AI, to health inequality and breaking down barriers in the creative industries.
Our students and academics are more critically engaged and socially conscious than ever before. Discover some of the positive changes our students, alumni and academics are making in the world.
YOUR FUTURE CAREER
You are likely to be involved in, or aspire to be involved in, a helping role within an educational, management, social care, nursing, advocacy, psychology, counselling, coaching, psychotherapy or other allied helping settings.
You might be, or aspire to be, a supervisor, manager, mentor, team leader or other role in which those you work with occasionally look to you for support, guidance, clarity or clear ways forward in either personal or professional settings.
This training is well-positioned to help you upskill in terms of strategies and techniques, all whilst giving you confidence in ensuring that you can facilitate helpful self-enquiry on the part of those you support and/or lead, whether your contact with those you support is one-off, intermittent, occasional or ongoing. The skills you will acquire can be directly applied in clinical and other helping settings, offering what tends to be a more positive experience than helping endeavours which are solely problem-focused in their nature.
Whatever your present and future roles and responsibilities, you will find yourself equipped to use an array of analytical and critical-thinking skills to identify, select and apply a set of reflective-practice competences which are consistent with a strengths-based approach to helping in various settings and contexts.
Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.
