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The Tavistock and portman, NHS Foundation Trust

Advanced practice and research: systemic psychotherapy (M10)

Join the only systemic psychotherapy doctorate in the UK

Advanced practice and research: systemic psychotherapy
Duration
Five years, part-time
Delivery
In-person
Qualification
Professional doctorate
Location
London
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This course is the only systemic doctorate in the UK and offers experienced practitioners, managers and educators the opportunity for advanced professional development, and an applied research training.

The course is uniquely arranged with other professional doctorates covering consultation and the organisation and social care and social work, making for a multidisciplinary student body and an enriching learning experience (this is referred to as the integrated professional doctorate part of the course).

The teaching staff are research active, diverse and collectively hold a wealth of experience of research and scholarship including fields such as cross-cultural qualitative research, cross-cultural clinical practice, social anthropology, systems of care, autism, clinical practice and research into groups and group dynamics.

Please note: you may see the M10 course also referred to as SYDOTP001 in communications from our application system.

Applications for this course are now closed for September 2025 entry. Please register your interest to be notified when applications open for 2026 entry.

About this course

This programme engages with the realities of current working experiences, its emotional demands and complexities, to enable a more confident, reflective response that increases the capacity to fulfil your role.

We aim to help you find direction in your career, in a manner that connects with your professional passion and curiosity, and also enhances your abilities for reflexive leadership both practically and intellectually.

Doctoral students consistently feedback the relevance of participation in this programme for the development of their thinking and practice in their work setting.

Many students have the support of their employers to conduct research on clinical or organisational topics, which makes a valuable contribution to the work of their service and their own professional performance.

The course comprises two years of ‘taught’ work and a minimum of two years applied research leading to submission of a 40,000-word doctoral thesis. The course is renowned for the care and support students receive from their supervisory teams.

The course staff take pride in the breadth of our engagement and teaching. Whatever type of research you would like to carry out, we will encourage and help you do so in the most comprehensive innovative and ethical way possible. We consider the development of research methods as an opportunity for self-scrutiny and reflexivity and encourage frank and critical consideration of research assumptions and positions.

The course includes teaching in quantitative, qualitative, critical qualitative, mixed methods, diffractive, post-structuralist, anti-colonising, psychoanalytic, and systemic research methods. We encourage you to develop your own mix and style to suit you as a person and your particular research project. We place high value on creativity throughout the study.

Year one

You will attend seminars focusing on systemic psychotherapy enquiry and its relationship to contemporary ideas and research activity in sociology, social anthropology, ethnography, social psychology and art. We consider research to rely on experience and knowledge as well as skill.

You will undertake an observation from a constructivist perspective. You will be encouraged to place yourself inside the observation and through an appreciation of art and drawing you will be helped to develop embodied, observational, contextual and linguistic research skills drawing on contexts and experiences unique to you. These two first modules lay the foundation for the second year and for the subsequent thesis writing.

Year two

You will participate in seminars on data analysis and methodological reflexivity. You will also engage with theory and research around the contemporary systemic psychotherapy context and complexity in practice-based enquiry. Throughout, you will be encouraged to place difference and complexity rather than similarity and unity at the centre of your practice and thinking.

During the first two years the research methods lectures, and some seminars are shared with students on other professional doctorate programmes in social work/social care and organisational consultancy, making for a unique and rich inter-disciplinary learning experience.

By the end of year two you will have developed a clear research proposal for your research, and in subsequent years you will be regularly supervised on your project by an experienced team of systemic psychotherapy academics and practitioners. Research matter seminars, systemic doctorate special events and symposia offer opportunities for networking, group data analysis and problem solving, as well as strong peer learning and support.

Each year you will be entitled to attend the annual Tavistock doctoral student conference where students present work in progress, display posters and learn from the experience of doctoral graduates.

Partnerships

We are in partnership with the Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research in Action (CAMRA) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and offer joint workshops with their doctoral students.

Modules

Module 1: Research Methods 1

  • Year one
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 30 credits
  • Core module
  • Module leads: Stephen Mills and Julia Jude

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • provide a sophisticated introduction to a range of research methodologies and research paradigms relevant to the conduct of applied professional research programmes
  • introduce key debates about ontology and epistemology and the philosophical principles underpinning knowledge generation in the social and psychological sciences, with particular attention to psycho-social, systemic, and organisational applications of these principles
  • through regular facilitated multi-disciplinary group sessions with other Professional Doctorate students, enable you to reflect on your practitioner identities, research aspirations, and methodological interests and thereby begin to reflexively position themselves as applied researchers
  • consider how applied research can be utilised to develop professional practice and contribute to extending the forefront of knowledge and/or professional practice within your own area

Module assessment
You are required to submit a 5,000 word critical essay incorporating a concise literature review, exploration of methodologies, and discussion of the researcher positioning with respect to a research topic of your choice.

Module 2: Advanced Practice 1a: Social Science & Systemic Psychotherapy

  • Year one
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 15 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Inga-Britt Krause

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • acquire an understanding of the foundational traditions in social science
  • develop an increased appreciation of the complexity of social systems
  • develop an enhanced appreciation of the interface between social science and psychology research and practice
  • enhance your understanding of the intersection of social, cultural, geographical and political contexts for research and systemic clinical practice and theory
  • provide a critical analysis informed by social science of the contribution of quantitative and qualitative research

Module assessment
You are required to submit a 3,000 word essay, reviewing and a critiquing of a piece of systemic research.

Module 3: Advanced Practice 1b: Observation, Experience & Reflexivity

  • Year one
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 15 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Julia Jude

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • become familiar with constructivist and ethnographic observations
  • develop an analytic and critical stance to your own observations, perceptions and descriptions
  • develop an awareness of the constraints of physical, social and cultural contexts upon the observations you make
  • become aware of the constraints of particular modes of description, annotation and communication
  • increase your reflexivity and creativity in observation and research.
  • enhance your awareness of the similarities and differences between research and clinical practice

Module assessment
You are required to deliver a 30-minute symposium presentation (75%) and 1,000 word essay, providing an evaluation of the learning from this assignment and its relevance to your research (25%).

Module 4: Research Methods 2

  • Year two
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 30 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Stephen Mills

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • consolidate your learning from Research Methods 1 with your prior knowledge and experience in clinical and applied professional practice
  • support you to think critically and reflexively about problems in order to create new solutions and new knowledge
  • enable you to choose an appropriate research design and research methodology for their research questions

Module assessment
You are required to submit a 5,000 word research assignment, describing the research that will form the basis of their thesis and including a systematic literature review.

Module 5: Advanced Practice 2a: Research Applications in Systemic Psychotherapy

  • Year two
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 15 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Stephen Mills

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • consolidate understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods
  • consolidate coherence between paradigms, research methods and epistemological positions
  • assist students in choosing appropriate research strategies and methods for their research proposal
  • provide practice in data analysis
  • assist students in the development of creativity and innovation in research

Module assessment
You are required to submit a 3,000 word essay.

Module 6: Advanced Practice 2b: Positioning & Systemic Psychotherapy

  • Year two
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 15 credits
  • Core module
  • Module lead: Britt Krause

Module aims
The aims of the module are to:

  • enable you to apply your appreciation of social, cultural and political contexts to your own positioning, both in your research and clinical practice
  • reflect and evaluate the similarities and differences between positions in research and clinical practice
  • consolidate your confidence in combining a disciplined, reflective and reflexive approach to individuals and systems as well as to your own participation in research and clinical practice
  • encourage creativity in designing research processes
  • appreciate depth and complexity in understanding

Module assessment
You are required to submit a 3,000 word essay, demonstrating a mature and disciplined grasp of reflection, reflexivity and positioning with particular reference to your own research. You will be expected to demonstrate the ability to reflect outward to the cultural, historical, linguistic, political and other forces that shape your enquiry and inwards towards yourself as an enquirer.

Module 7: Research Thesis

  • Years three plus
  • FHEQ level 8
  • 240 credits
  • Core module
  • Module leads: Inga-Britt Krause, Julia Jude and Stephen Mills

Module aim

The aim of the module is to to enable you to apply research skills in a real world environment in order to complete a research project which is of some value to your field of professional practice.

Module assessment
Assessment is through the submission and a viva examination of a thesis of 40,000 words, detailing your original research.

Who is this course for?

This course is for you if you:

  • want to enhance your ability to place diversity and difference at the heart of your practice
  • would like to complement your curiosity with research inquiry
  • would like to contribute to systemic research

The course uniquely combines therapeutic practice principles and an emphasis on social science, including social anthropology and issues of diversity and reflexivity.

Course details

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

  • have a master’s degree in systemic psychotherapy or equivalent (this must include specific knowledge of systemic psychotherapy theory and practice)
  • hold a professional systemic registration e.g. AFT or UKCP
  • have some prior knowledge of research

As part of our application process we ask that you submit a proposal as we are interested in the thoughts and ideas that you have about your research interests.

Please note that this does not need to be a fully worked out proposal, just an idea at application stage.

Home

£6,480 per year (2025/26)

International

£12,960 per year (2025/26)

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, including a postgraduate loan – find more information here.

Assessment

All seminars lead to assessment by assignment. There are two 3,000 word assignments and one 5,000 word assignment in each of the first two years.

You will only be able to go onto year three in which you begin your independent research if you have passed all assignments.

Attendance

In years one and two, attendance for lectures and seminars is one and a half days per month on a Thursday (all day) and Friday (half day).

From year three onwards, attendance is more flexible with research seminars once a term and monthly individual research supervision.

Graduates from this course have continued to develop their careers as practice leaders either in strategic leadership or practice leadership positions, in advanced or specialised practice roles and in education or academia.

This programme is commended by graduates for the development of their thinking and practice in their work setting.

The codes for this course are M10 and SYDOTP001.

Why study with us?

You will be joining the longest standing systemic psychotherapy doctoral programme of this kind in the UK. Many of our alumni have gone on to publish and make significant contributions to the international field of systemic psychotherapy research and practice.

This course uniquely combines relationship-based with therapeutic practice principles and an emphasis on social science, including social anthropology, and issues of diversity and reflexivity. You will benefit from a staff team who are experienced current practitioners, as well as leading academics and researchers.

Course facilitators

Validations and accreditations

University of Essex logo

This course is validated by the University of Essex.

Register your interest

Applications for this course are now closed for September 2025 entry. Please register your interest to be notified when applications open for 2026 entry.

Register your interest

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