Leading to eligibility to apply for BACP registration as a Counsellor
Starts March 2024
This training programme is delivered in person on weekends. Students must be able to travel to The Institute in London.
This course is due to finish in February 2025.
"The Teenage Counselling Diploma was outstanding. I felt it was a great success and incredible to think it was all delivered through a pandemic!!"
Frances Ackland-Snow (author of the book and film, starring Jeremy Irons The Little Girl with No Voice)
Philosophy of the course
What an amazing stage of life, with all its dramatic hormonal changes, which can turn that sweet little kid into a teenager who knows their own mind, becomes their own person and finds their own direction. If all goes well, transition to adulthood means the teenager fully engages with their drive and creativity, discovers their sexuality in the context of a loving relationship, and develops a far deeper level of social and emotional intelligence. But if things go wrong, teenagers can find themselves living with the torment of shame, anxiety or depression, low self-esteem.
About the course
This course comprises a wealth of age appropriate therapeutic interventions, clinical skills practice, fascinating theoretical underpinnings from the latest research in adolescent psychology, sociology, neuroscience and medicine. As well as working one-to-one with troubled teenagers, the course will also equip students with evidence-based psychoeducation for teenagers. This includes vital knowledge to enable teenagers to successfully process painful life experiences and make informed decisions about key aspects of their lives e.g. use of social media, drugs, alcohol, gender and sexuality, self-harm, relationships with peers and parents, how to say no and look after themselves, the skill of happiness and what to do with their life. This will enable students to be able to teach psychology-informed PSHE lessons for teenagers.
The course will train students to be able to run specific focus mental health groups in a safe highly structured way. These moving therapy groups offer teenagers the opportunity to meet others who are going through what they are going through.
All clinical skills taught on the course are underpinned with an in-depth understanding of developmental theory, relevant psychoanalytic and psychological theory and the neuroscientific research-base explaining what the emotionally-available adult does to optimise effectiveness. The training aims to support the counsellor to enable the child to move from a life blighted by mental health problems and/or troubled relationships, to being able to enjoy a capacity for a far more compassionate accepting relationship with self, for deeply fulfilling relationships with others and to know a far warmer, kinder inner world.
This course comprises of classroom-based tuition and a supervised placement of 100 client hours. We have a designated placement coordinator for the course. Client groups are pre-assessed as suitable. This is supervised practice. All students are required to attend weekly personal therapy and independent supervision at their own cost.
The Diploma is awarded by The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE).
Who is this course for?
The course is for people who are passionate about helping teenagers. The course qualifies delegates to work with 12 to 25-year-olds. This means being able to work in both colleges and universities. The need is great! There are so few people in this country who hold an actual qualification in counselling teenagers, so we are confident that this Diploma will open many doors.
Main Educational Aims of the course
- Preparing students to be able to work therapeutically with the highest of ethical standards with teenagers in a variety of health, education, social services and private sector contexts;
- Providing opportunities to explore and examine how to prevent troubled teenagers from spoiling their lives through unprocessed feelings and emotional, relational and behavioural difficulties;
- Enabling students to acquire the ability to integrate theoretical concepts with practical skills leading to effective application of core competencies in clinical practice;
- Enabling students to develop clinical skills to be able to assess the emotional needs of teenage clients and to respond to these effectively taking into account the identification of risk;
- Enabling students to help teenagers process their feelings in such a way that empowers them to form meaningful and enriching connections with self and others;
- Ensuring that students have acquired the reflective and evaluative skills necessary to monitor and appraise effectively their work with teenagers;
- Enabling students to work with the arts, metaphor and symbol to help teenagers explore their inner worlds and connect to their creativity
- Enabling students to run therapy groups for teenagers and psychological based PSHE sessions for teenagers on how to do life well;
- Enabling students to run parent-teenager short term therapy sessions to improve the quality of the relationship.
The award of 'Diploma in Counselling Teenagers' will be granted upon successful completion of the training programme and receipt of a signed clinical log recording a minimum of 100 clinical hours.
Admissions
All applicants for Routes One & Two must submit a letter of recommendation from their most recent course leader/tutor to
Applicants for Route Two must attend a Taster/Application Day (free of charge). The online booking form will require payment therefore, please email
It is not uncommon for some applicants to be invited to attend a second interview which will be held online. You will be contacted directly if this is required.
Applicants for Route Three must submit an Application Form and attend a Taster/Application Day. Applicants for this route will be required to attend a second interview.
Applicants from all routes are required to complete a Counselling Skills training course (Level 2, 30 hours)
Applicants must have;
- Some experience of living with or working with teenagers
- Empathy, in-depth capacity for reflection
- Self-awareness, good contact and therapeutic presence
Attendance on this programme via Route Two cannot be considered if TIS training has not been completed in full. All days must have been attended and assessments successfully passed.
Route One
First year training curriculum and qualification from: Level One, DipCC Year 1, MA IAP Year 1, Wellbeing Year 2 (two year qualification)
Second year starts March 2024: Young People’s Mental Health, Counselling Interventions and Clinical Placement (weekend days and some weekdays scheduled during school half term and holidays).
Eligible to apply for BACP registration after BACP Membership and Proficiency test.
Total trainer contact hours range from a minimum of 250 to 400 hours
Route Two
First year: Trauma Informed and Counselling Interventions in Schools and Communities with successful Diploma qualification.
Weekend days and work based learning: University route or internal award.
Our sister organisation Trauma Informed Schools www.traumainformedschools.co.uk deliver this course around the UK with one entirely on-line.
If you wish to do this course in another region of the UK it will need to have finished before the start of the Diploma in Counselling Teenagers programme in February. Attendance on this programme cannot be considered if TIS training has not been completed in full. All days must have been attended and assessments successfully passed.
Second year: March 2024
Young People’s Mental Health, Counselling Interventions and Clinical Placement (weekend days and some weekdays scheduled during school half term and holidays).
Eligible to apply for BACP registration after BACP Membership and Proficiency test.
Total trainer contact hours: 250 hours
Route Three
Starts March 2024: For qualified counsellors or therapists only
Qualification at the end of one year.
Admissions criteria: at least 100 training hours and qualification from a recognised College plus a clinical log detailing client hours under supervision signed by an appropriately trained clinical supervisor (accredited UKCP or BACP). Also at least one year personal psychotherapy (signed from therapist with registering body and registration number).
Please note that this route does not lead to eligibility for BACP registration as although intensive does not fulfil BACP requirement for two years part time or one year full time. In order to proceed with registration with BACP you must complete a Trauma and Mental Health Informed Schools and Communities training programme.
Total trainer contact hours: 200 hours
Changes to the curriculum, teaching staff, assignments on our courses
IATE reserves the right to make adjustments to the above due to unforeseen circumstances.
The quality of the training will not in any way be compromised in doing so.
