Advanced Training in Psychotherapy within an Ecological Approach

Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year you can apply for a three-year rolling programme in Advanced Training in Psychotherapy with an Ecological Approach.

The Advanced training takes place over 10 weekends each year (Sept-June)

All Advanced psychotherapeutic theory and practice, including Transactional Analysis (TA), is held within an eco-systemic frame of reference and viewed through a lens of intersectionality.

We strongly encourage the further development of ongoing self-reflection, co-creativity, curiosity, relationality and critical thinking as a part of the learning process to become an ethical and competent psychotherapist.and ecological practitioner.

We foster a co-creative and relational learning environment through an experiential style of teaching/delivery to open up reflective spaces to stimulate your own thinking and practices. We invite deeper inquiry, active participation, curiosity and interactive dialogue within pairs/triads and the bigger group to lift your learning.

Every weekend the learning takes particular account of the ecological spaces in which we live and learn, including ‘getting on the move’ in accessible natural settings.

We have a practise-based approach to our delivery of all theory which involves critical reflection and developing advanced therapeutic skills to support the work you do with clients in both indoor and natural spaces.

All theoretical input at weekends is further consolidated and expanded upon with required reading of the teaching notes/powerpoints and within the wider literature.

We emphasise throughout the training how ‘practice’ not only refers to interventions with clients but also to our own personal practices.
You develop your own intentions and learning aims for the year with ecological and spiritual practices to support your own well-being (body-mind, soul, spirit) and the work you do as a psychotherapist and ecological practitioner.

Read Our Red Kite Learning Philosophy

All Advanced Years 1-3 cover topics in these Course Modules at greater depth and complexity:

• Ecological Philosophy, Theory + Practices;
• Ego states & Transactions;
• Script & Motivation;
• Games, Rackets & Enactments:
• The Therapeutic Relationship:
• Contracting & Ethical Practice:
• Assessment + Treatment Direction;
• Therapeutic Skills;
• Somatic Experience & the Body;
• Neuroscience & Human Development;
• Approaches within TA and the wider fields;
• Specific mental health difficulties, client issues & contexts.
• Writing & Research.

Theoretical Learning Aims

We have a practise-based approach to our delivery of all theory which involves your own critical reflection to consider how theory might relate to and support the work you do as a psychotherapist.

• Increase your breadth of knowledge and understanding at greater depth of psychotherapeutic theories, including TA, within an eco-systemic frame through a lens of intersectionality;
• widen and deepen your knowledge and understanding of ecological philosophy, theory developments and practices within the wider field;
• develop your capacities to compare, contrast and critique advanced theory and practice within TA and the wider psychotherapeutic fields.

Personal Development

We emphasise how ‘practice’ not only refers to interventions with clients but also to our own personal practices.

• develop your own intentions and learning aims for the year with ecological and spiritual practices to support your own well-being (body-mind, soul, spirit) and reflexivity as a psychotherapist.

• capacity to further relate and apply your learning to self, others and the more-than-human within the contexts of the wider world;

• reflect in-depth upon your own script process and this relates to self, others and the more-than-human;

• develop your own personal and professional identity as a psychotherapist

Practice Learning

We learn and practice advanced therapeutic skills and interventions to support the work you do with clients indoor and in natural spaces as a psychotherapist and ecological practitioner:

• develop your identity and therapeutic style as a psychotherapist;

• expand and deepen your ecological practices ie. rites of passage (intention, severance, threshold and return), sufficiency, containment and boundaries, risk assessment, eco-biography, discipline and ‘clean’ practice.

• enhance your skills and competencies in contracting, assessment and treatment direction with a range of complex mental health difficulties (Axis II);

• develop a creative and flexible understanding at greater depth of therapeutic relating, including with the more-than-human;

• learn and practice further therapeutic skills and interventions to support the ‘internal work’ you do with clients in both indoor and natural spaces ie. presence skills, movement exercises, storytelling, ritual.

• navigate the terrain of the psychotherapeutic process; expand the range and depth of your treatment planning and interventions to facilitate the process of change ie. deconfusion, transference cure and script cure.

• deepen your understanding and ways of working within the transference-countertransference matrix, including the more-than-human;

• explore the diversity of the wider dynamics and contexts which affect clients;

• sharpen your ethical thinking and practice;

• build effective use of Supervision in Placement and/or Private Practice.