Child, adolescent and family mental wellbeing: multidisciplinary practice (ED24, online)

Discover our award-winning training in child, adolescent and family mental healthcare and practice – now delivered entirely online.

This award-winning course explores the fundamental principles of child, adolescent and family mental healthcare and practice, informed by systemic, psychodynamic and child development theories.

Drawing on a range of modalities and approaches, participants are supported in developing a theoretical framework and toolkit of therapeutic skills that can be immediately applied to their practice.

Validated by the University of Essex and accredited by the Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (AFT), this one-year training will now be delivered entirely online.

Please note: you may see the ED24 course also referred to as PTPCTP007 in communications from our application system.

About this course

On this course you will learn through theoretical seminars and lectures, infant observation and/or family observation, work practice discussions, experiential groups, personal tutorials and a four-day group relations conference. All teaching takes place in multidisciplinary groups.

Group Relations Conference (GRC)

All ED24 students must attend a Group Relations Conference as part of the course, preferably in person. Students may either join the multidisciplinary Spring Group Relations Conference at the Tavistock Centre in London or choose another Group Relations Conference to attend elsewhere. A list of recognised conferences will be provided.

If you choose to attend another Group Relations Conference, we are able to offer a refund of your course fees up to the value of the Tavistock and Portman’s internal Group Relations Conference fee, charged to courses where this is a mandatory requirement.

Please note that students will be responsible for any travel and accommodation costs associated with the conference.

Theoretical seminars

Theoretical seminars will develop your understanding of psychodynamic, systemic and developmental concepts and how they can be applied in working effectively with children, young people and families where emotional and mental health difficulties exist.

You will study child and family development theories and research, and explore the factors that affect mental health and wellbeing in children, young people and families and common presenting issues. Issues relating to equalities, diversity and inclusion are addressed directly through specific theoretical lectures as well as being embedded in the lecture and seminar series more broadly.

Observation

You will undertake an observational module, choosing between an infant/young child or family observation. These seminars will draw upon psychodynamic and systemic theories and develop your observational skills and capabilities.

You will be encouraged to think carefully about aspects of your own and the observed family’s identity and the relationship between these as part of the observation process. If you choose and successfully complete the family observation module  you will achieve the AFT foundation level award.

Please note that it is your responsibility to arrange this observation, and to cover the costs of any travel associated with this, but you will be given guidance and support with this task during induction and throughout the first term of the course.

Work discussion

These small, multidisciplinary professional practice groups will draw on your practical work experience and aim to develop your capabilities in thinking and in practice. These components aim to facilitate the integration of relevant theoretical ideas and research in order to develop advanced therapeutic practice skills in working with children, young people and families.

Experiential group

The experiential group will take place every week and offers an opportunity for students to gain an understanding of the processes at work in groups and their own role in these processes. You will be encouraged to explore your experience of working in the group with others who can be different from yourself in terms of race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic background and you will learn from others’ perspectives and examine your own relationship to these.

Personal tutor

A personal tutor will be assigned to support your professional and personal development throughout the course.

Modules

Module 1: Therapeutic Practice, Concepts and Contexts: Applications for practice in working with children, young people, and families with emotional and mental health difficulties.

  • Year of Study: Year One
  • FHEQ Level: Level 7
  • Credit Weighting: 20 credits
  • Module Status: Core
  • Module Leaders: Jason Maldonado-Page and Shon Grant

Module Aims

  • To develop a detailed and authoritative understanding of, and applied use of, theoretical concepts relevant to different therapeutic approaches and interventions in working effectively with children, young people, and families, where mental health difficulties exist.
  • To explore the worker client relationship and contextual issues from both psychodynamic and systemic perspectives exploring both the commonalities and divergences of both theoretical strands.
  • To make theoretical and practical connections with the use of self, self-reflexivity and relationship-based practice and explore in detail the application of these ideas in daily professional practice.
  • To develop a theoretical language for analysing and understanding the complexities of communication and relationships in their work with children, young people within family relationships and associated belief systems.
  • To consider the range of conscious, unconscious, and systemic factors that impact upon and shape interventions with children, parents, and families.

Module Assessment

Students are required to submit a 4,000-word reflective case study essay, plus either two contextualised process recordings (not exceeding 1,500 words each) or two transcripts of videotaped clinical sessions of work with families.

Module 2: Infant and Young Child Observation

  • Year of Study: Year One
  • FHEQ Level: Level 7
  • Credit Weighting: 20 credits
  • Module Status: Optional
  • Module Leaders: Jason Maldonado-Page

Module Aims

  • To develop in the observer the capacity to acquire discipline in their observation and develop observational skills.
  • To support the student in observing, reflecting upon, and analysing his/her own feelings and behaviour within the observational context.
  • To help students to gain further understanding of child development and the emerging relationships and interactions of family or carers.
  • To promote a deeper awareness of how children communicate in order to effect changes in their practice, in themselves, and in others.
  • To think about the child’s emotional development in the context of their social and cultural experience.
  • To explore relevant theoretical ideas in relation to the issues generated by the observations.

Module Assessment

Students are required to submit a portfolio consisting of a 250-word contextualisation of the infant/young child being observed and the setting in which the observation is taking place, three infant/young child observation reports, each of 1,500 words maximum, and a reflective commentary of 3,250 words.

Module 3: Family Observation and Systemic Theory

  • Year of Study: Year One
  • FHEQ Level: Level 7
  • Credit Weighting: 20 credits
  • Module Status: Optional
  • Module Leaders: Shon Grant

Module Aims

  • To develop a (sound) basic knowledge and understanding of the development of systemic theory and systemic concepts, ability to both critique these and consider their application in practice.
  • To develop an awareness and reflexive understanding of one’s own beliefs, values, and families of origin.
  • To develop an ethical position as an observer and researcher drawing on and being familiar with the AFT Code of Ethics.
  • To explore differences of ‘race’, culture, gender, class, physical ability, and sexual orientation and to relate this understanding both to the observation of media portrayals and role plays of families and to the observation of a real family.
  • To demonstrate a knowledge and application of anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice and begin to be able to demonstrate the ability to use sensitivity and self and relational reflexivity in engagement and working across differences.

Module Assessment

Students are required to submit a 3,500-word theoretically-informed essay, including an anonymised family genogram.

To qualify for AFT accreditation, students are also required to submit a reflective portfolio of work, comprising: 6 self-reflexive learning diary excerpts (1,500 words), an accompanying narrative essay (500 words), theory presentation handout and peer feedback.

Module 4: Introduction to Developmental Science Research and Presenting Issues

  • Year of Study: Year One
  • FHEQ Level: Level 7
  • Credit Weighting: 20 credits
  • Module Status: Core
  • Module Leaders: Shon Grant

Module Aims

  • To place developmental research in its historical, cultural and biological context, and consider the links between ‘ordinary’ development and mental health issues in babies, children adolescents and adults.
  • To explore central issues in the field of developmental science, such as the nature-nurture controversy, the expanding area of neurobiological research, epigenetics, attachment, and cultural influences.
  • To develop an understanding of the most common diagnostic categories and presenting issues in child, adolescent, and adult mental health, using cultural and developmental understandings.
  • To encourage a questioning, critical and evaluative approach to reading, which can be extended into students’ clinical and professional work.

Module Assessment

Students are required to submit a 3,500-word essay on aspects of child and/or adolescent development research studied, linked to a child, adolescent and or adult presenting issue, in response to a question taken from a specified list provided at the beginning of the academic year.

Module 5: Experiential Group

  • Year of Study: Year One
  • FHEQ Level: Level 7
  • Credit Weighting: 0 credits
  • Module Status: Compulsory
  • Module Leaders: Victoria Blincow

Module Aims

  • To support students and offer the opportunity to share and discuss the way in which the course impacts on them.
  • To provide a space to think about working with issues concerning diversity, difference, equality, ethnic, cultural differences, social class, and power, both within and outside the group.
  • To allow students to explore and reflect on some of the dynamics that occur in and between members of groups and within organisations.

Module Assessment

This module is not assessed but students are expected to demonstrate the personal and professional development gained from the group experience in all other aspects and assessments of the course. Attendance is compulsory.

Module 6: Group Relations Conference

  • Year of Study: Year One
  • FHEQ Level: Level 7
  • Credit Weighting: 0 credits
  • Module Status: Compulsory
  • Module Leaders: Jason Maldonado-Page

Module Aims

  • To support students to recognise the emotional impact of their work upon themselves as individuals, upon colleagues and upon the organisations within which they work and with whom they engage.
  • To develop an understanding of the different roles and practice of different disciplines and agencies and the effects of local and national policy on these.
  • To support students to recognise the individual and group roles you may take up, or others may take up, due to professional culture or organisational cultures, and which may inhabit them both consciously and unconsciously.
  • To develop an ability to identify group dynamics and organisational defences in their own agencies and discipline structures, which militate against maintaining high professional standards or affect care provided.
  • To explore ethical issues, power and authority relationships that impact on themselves and the work with their clients.
  • To realise that we both have and experience from others, implicit professional valences for thinking in certain ways, about the nature of care work and of other agencies.
  • To be able to reflect upon one’s own and others experience in the exercise of leadership and followership in group and organisational life and apply experiential insights to roles taken up outside the conference.
  • To begin to develop a shared language for the analysis of organisational and inter-professional working relationships and develop skills in communication and in communicating across interdisciplinary and interagency boundaries, learning about and challenging professional stereotypes.
  • To develop the ability to excise initiative and personal responsibility and begin to develop ways in which you can apply transfer the learning from this event into their own practice with service users and colleagues.

Module Assessment

This module is not assessed but students are expected to demonstrate the personal and professional development gained from the event in the summer term’s lectures, practice discussion and assignments. Attendance is compulsory.

Who is this course for?

This course is for you if you work with children, adolescents or families, and wish to improve your knowledge and capabilities. You may be a:

  • social worker
  • safeguarding officer
  • doctor
  • nurse
  • educational professional (teacher, teaching assistant, learning mentor, SENCO, one-to-one support)
  • counsellor
  • psychotherapist
  • health visitor
  • occupational therapist
  • creative arts therapist
  • child and adolescent primary mental healthcare worker
  • child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) practitioner or working with children and families in the voluntary or statutory sector
  • caring support worker
  • probation officer
  • police officer
  • housing officer

We are proud of our diverse, multidisciplinary teaching and learning community, and actively encourage applicants from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority / Global Majority and other diverse backgrounds.

Course details

In order to undertake this course, we ask that you:

  • hold an appropriate professional qualification relevant to your chosen career
  • have significant practical and/or direct experience in working with children, adolescents and/or families
  • have an undergraduate degree, degree equivalent, or evidence of other relevant post-registration education/experience
  • are in a full-time or part-time post (paid or voluntary) in which you are working with children, adolescents and/or families experiencing difficulties, be they behavioural, emotional or psychological, where you have a remit to make a difference in your work.

Home

£5,400 per year (2025/26)

There are no international fees as this course is delivered online.

You will be charged course fees for each year of your course. If your course is longer than one year, the fees that you will be charged after the first year will be subject to an annual uplift, which is not normally expected to exceed 6% or the Consumer Price Index (as stated on 01 September of that academic year) if higher than 6%. At its discretion and in rare instances, the Trust may determine a figure greater than either, to reflect costs associated with the activity (e.g. assessment, teaching, administration etc.), which shall not exceed 10%. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions, and Student Fees & Refund Policy for further information.

Financial support may be available to help you fund your studies at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Assessment

In order to achieve a postgraduate certificate, you need to gain a pass mark on three academic essay submissions, which are spread out over the spring and summer terms, and have a minimum of 75% attendance on all parts of the course.

If you choose to undertake the family observation module, and successfully complete this activity and additional assessed work, you will achieve a foundation level award from the Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (AFT).

Attendance

Teaching sessions will be delivered online on Mondays from 10:00am to 5:00pm (UK time). 

Please note that you will also need to set aside a minimum of 1-2 hours each week for approximately 20 weeks of the course for either an infant/young child observation or a family observation, including time for writing notes. It is your responsibility to arrange this observation, but you will be given guidance and support with this task during induction and throughout the first term of the course.

Students on the this course have appreciated its multi-modal approach and made use of it to develop their work in settings such as education, social care and CAMHS.

Others have used it as a stepping stone into further systemic, psychodynamic or multi-modal training.

Application deadlines

There are a number of important application deadlines associated with our postgraduate courses, however we encourage you to apply as early as possible, as spaces on our courses are limited and can be competitive.

Applications for this course are expected to close on the following dates:

  • Monday 6 January 2025: Early decision deadline
  • Monday 30 June 2025: Summer application deadline

Why study with us?

This is a unique opportunity to study on an award-winning, multidisciplinary course, now delivered entirely online.

Over the year, you will be supported in developing a theoretical framework for understanding child, adolescent and family development and family functioning that will inform your practice. You will gain advanced knowledge and hone key therapeutic skills, drawing on systemic and psychodynamic theories.

You will develop the capability to undertake informed early assessment, and skilful and effective preliminary work – knowing how and where to refer children, adolescents and families for more specialised treatment whilst always having the service user perspective at the centre of your practice.

The course was awarded the ‘Excellence in multi-professional education and training 2014 award’ by Health Education North Central and East London and is accredited by the Association for Family Therapy.

Course facilitators

Validations and accreditations

University of Essex logo

This course is validated by the University of Essex.

AFT logo

This course is accredited by the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice.

Apply now

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