Testimonials

I successfully completed the 2007/2008 Post Graduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy through the Royal Holloway, University of London. I found this Course to be extremely rewarding and I would very highly recommend it to my fellow colleagues. The Course achieves an excellent balance between theory and practice. Some of the lecturers were internationally renowned and it was a privilege to get taught by such esteemed professionals. The clinical supervision was excellent and allowed me to learn from an experienced CBT clinician how to translate theory into practice. This Course has helped me enormously in my career as a Psychologist and CBT Practitioner and has allowed me to gain formal BABCP Accreditation.

Ashley Douglass
Clinical Psychologist

My experience of this Course has been very positive. I found it to be very well organised and the delivery excellent. The speakers were inspirational. Not only does the Course effectively present the basics of CBT but it very successfully nurtured my development by then presenting CBT for a broad range of mental health difficulties. To date this Course has proved invaluable to my clinical practice. It has enabled me to understand my own fears and anxieties and to develop further in terms of my professional competence. It has provided me with the means to work in an empirical and collaborative way with clients promoting recovery. Worthy of particular note was the supervision. This was exceedingly helpful in terms of learning to apply the model, but additionally to experience the model in practice. I would not hesitate to recommend this Course to anyone starting out in CBT or additionally looking to develop their knowledge and skill further, acquiring a formal BABCP accredited qualification. Good Luck!

Karen Pearson
Mental Health Nurse

The CBT Course at CNWL has been truly comprehensive. This Course has helped me gain my accreditation with BABCP and further my teaching career. Today I am passing on the CBT tradition to other schools. The Course leaders and supervisors were always supportive and understanding when it came to students’ particular difficulties with case work which makes studying (for the employed student) so much easier. Well done CNWL!

Daniel Mirea
Psychotherapist and Lecturer

My experience of the CBT Course has been an extremely rewarding one. I have had the opportunity to increase my core knowledge about the discipline through interesting lectures competently presented by experienced therapists and through preparing several pieces of work that stretched my abilities beyond rote learning of facts. I was expected to appraise the literature and synthesise the information and come to my own conclusions of how the empirical evidence could be brought to bear on individual cases that I was seeing. This grounding in the theory and research has given me a confidence when formulating a client’s presentation and the guidance offered in weekly supervision added the opportunity for critical peer reflection and a forum for accountability for decision making that has added a layer of sophistication to my practice.

The Course offers medical doctors the opportunity to view mental disorders from a model distinct from the medical one; yet not so different as to be opposed and this broader perspective lends a depth to one’s practice that is further developed through the core principles of collaborative, guided discovery that may challenge the position that the doctor traditionally holds in relation to the patient. I experienced growth on the Course through challenging some of the assumptions I had developed for myself during the years of training I had at medical school. I began to learn that I did not have all the answers (that the client actually knows himself better) and I gave myself permission to let go of the control and responsibility I believed I had for “curing” emotional distress after realising that the pace of therapy must be set by the client and healing and change occur with time - and not in 15 minute sessions in an outpatient appointment. I learnt to examine my own thoughts (catastrophic fears of failure) as I experienced anxieties about working in a new way, but reaped the peace that resulted from sharing some of the responsibility for healing with the client that I had erroneously believed was all my own. I would recommend this experience very highly and am grateful to our mentors on the Course for forever changing the view I have of myself as a healer, the view I have of the client and for giving me the tools to share with them on their journey to wellness.

Dr Llewellyn Lewis
Consultant Psychiatrist

As a student of the 2005/2006 Cohort, I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to undertake such an interesting Course. Without doubt, this has proved to be the most relevant and useful Course that I have taken in my professional nursing career.

I found it to be well structured and delivered to a very high professional standard. The lectures were delivered by members of the core staff team and by eminent specialists in the field. The teaching covers the application of CBT to a wide range of psychological disorders providing useful techniques, principles, theories and models that can be applied to clinical practice. Furthermore, the supervised practical component helps to structure clinical work and allows the students to improve their knowledge and use of CBT models and techniques.

The Course has helped me to gain an understanding of the foundation of CBT principles and CBT practice. It has provided me with a framework for dealing with all sorts of problems and enabled me as a practitioner to become more focused, goal directed and confident in providing structured and time limited interventions within the Community Mental Health Team. On reflection, I am now able to work more collaboratively with my clients to provide an empirically supported approach to treatment. Good luck to all future students.

Christian Carre
Community Mental Health Nurse

This is a demanding, but well-organised, very worthwhile Course for anybody wishing to extend their practical skills and knowledge. Teaching is robust and students are encouraged to constructively evaluate developments in CBT. Lectures by both CNWL staff and a range of eminent guest speakers are both thought-provoking and stimulating. Feedback and guidance from tutors is thorough and helpful. This Course has enabled me to deal confidently with a wider range of clinical disorders.

Hazel Haynes
Counsellor

My interest in completing the Course was to develop my knowledge and practice of CBT with particular emphasis on being sensitive to the therapeutic relationship whilst thinking about the timing of specific interventions. The Course did not disappoint and my experience of it has been a rewarding one. The approach was mainly participative and experiential with an emphasis on practical skills building, and combined brief lectures, role-plays and videotapes. I particularly valued supervision, which provided an excellent opportunity for reflecting on and systematically evaluating my practice.

As a result of completing the Course, I have developed a greater understanding of the strengths and limitations of CBT, and how the ‘fit’ between the cognitive model and a client’s understanding the world might influence a client’s acceptance of the model and ultimately therapeutic outcome. Through supervision, I have become more aware of not discounting certain techniques when they are not immediately effective and to understand roadblocks in the context of a conceptualisation of a client’s presenting difficulties.

The Course has definitely increased my competence as a CBT practitioner and has highlighted the role of self-reflection in CBT training. It has inspired me to go on to develop competencies to become an accredited CBT supervisor.

Dr Rita Woo
Clinical Psychologist

I felt privileged to be on this course. It was an extremely rewarding and transformative learning experience for me. As the only medical doctor I felt welcomed and accepted. The teaching was generally excellent and we had several distinguished teachers sharing their expertise. The regular supervision was invaluable for providing reliable guidance and support whilst consolidating reflection in practice. I started low down on the learning curve, but became more confident as the course went on, acquiring new knowledge and skills, as well as a more collaborative and enabling way of interacting with individuals suffering from mental health problems. I have also found that many of these skills are transferable and can be used in other areas of my work such as clinical work, mentoring and teaching. Indeed, I have found practising CBT so rewarding that I am working towards accreditation with the BABCP such that I can work as a therapist in the future, blending my knowledge and experience of clinical medicine with CBT. My only caveat when recommending the course to colleagues is to warn them that it requires a considerable commitment, particularly for those who do not have a background in psychology. In my opinion it was undoubtedly worthwhile and I very much miss not being on the course any longer!

Dr Paquita de Zulueta
General Practitioner 

This was a very enjoyable, challenging and informative training. Theory and practice were skilfully incorporated over the 18 months and the support we received was invaluable. It was a well organised course, delivered to a high standard. I have been qualified for almost 2 years and was inspired to continue to use and build on this excellent training. I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to gain thorough knowledge, skills and practical application of CBT.

Brenda Barrass, CBT Therapist