Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy
Integrative Transpersonal Training
January 2028 – November 2030 (plus optional Year 4)
Applications open Spring 2027
The training that forms you, not just qualifies you.
The Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy is a three-year professional training leading to qualification as an integrative transpersonal psychotherapist and eligibility for BACP registration. It is the natural continuation of the Foundation Programme — and the beginning of a clinical identity.
Part-time format
To sit alongside your other commitments
Hybrid learning
Online and/or in-person
in-person teaching weekends
Held in central London
A MODERN APPROACH
Psychotherapy is not a set of techniques applied to problems. It is a sustained encounter between two human beings — one who is suffering, and one who has learned to be present with that suffering without flinching, fixing, or turning away.
What this training is
The Diploma is built around a single premise: that becoming a psychotherapist is not primarily an academic achievement. It is a developmental one. Over three years, students deepen their capacity to think clinically, hold the therapeutic frame, and work relationally with clients through complexity, crisis, and change.
The training draws from psychodynamic, humanistic, existential, and transpersonal traditions, integrating these perspectives within a coherent relational framework. Jungian thought runs through the programme as a connective tissue — offering a language for the symbolic, the unconscious, and the deeper dimensions of human experience that are so often at the heart of therapeutic work.
Ethical awareness, inclusive practice, and a critical engagement with power, difference, and identity are not modules within this training. They are woven through it. Students are supported to understand how social, cultural, and political context shapes psychological experience, and to bring that understanding into the relational field of their clinical work.
This is a training for people who want to do this work with rigour, depth, and integrity.
The training at a glance
Duration
3 years, part-time (plus optional advanced Year 4)
Delivery
Hybrid — weekly seminars (online and/or in-person) plus monthly in-person weekends
Start date
January 2028
Fees
£6,450 per year
Outcome
Eligibility for BACP registration as an integrative transpersonal psychotherapist
Mandatory
Personal therapy with a qualified psychotherapist throughout the training
Entry
Completion of the TGMHC Foundation Certificate, or prior counselling/psychotherapy training at equivalent level
The approach
Integrative and transpersonal
No single theoretical tradition holds all the answers. The Diploma draws on multiple perspectives — psychodynamic, humanistic, existential, and transpersonal — not to combine them superficially, but to integrate them thoughtfully around a coherent relational and ethical centre.
The psychodynamic tradition offers insight into the unconscious, early relational worlds, and the dynamics of transference and countertransference. The humanistic tradition holds the inherent dignity and self-determining capacity of the person at its core. The existential tradition brings the questions of meaning, freedom, and mortality that so often surface in depth work. And the transpersonal tradition — rooted in Jungian psychology and developed through thinkers like Assagioli — opens the work to the symbolic, the imaginal, and the wider dimensions of human experience that resist purely clinical framing.
These perspectives are held together by a relational philosophy: that the therapeutic relationship is the primary site of change, and that the quality of the therapist’s presence matters as much as their theoretical knowledge.
The therapist as instrument
We believe the therapist is the primary instrument of the work. This means that developing the self — increasing self-awareness, expanding relational capacity, tolerating uncertainty and complexity — is as central to clinical training as acquiring theoretical knowledge or technical skill.
Throughout the Diploma, students engage in ongoing personal development work: through experiential learning, group process, personal therapy, and reflective practice. The aim is not simply to train competent practitioners, but to support the formation of therapists who are genuinely present, ethically grounded, and able to work at depth.
Inclusive and anti-oppressive practice
The training is grounded in a commitment to inclusive and anti-oppressive practice. Students engage critically and reflectively with questions of power, privilege, identity, and difference — not as a discrete area of study, but as a thread running through every aspect of the training.
This includes explicit engagement with LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences, the impact of social and political context on psychological life, and how difference shapes both the therapeutic relationship and the therapist’s own internal world. This work unfolds as a lived and relational process — within the training group, in supervision, and in clinical practice.
Applications open Spring 2027
Structure
The Diploma runs over three years, part-time, delivered from January to November each year across 30 teaching weeks. Delivery combines weekly seminars (online and/or in-person, depending on the year of training) with monthly in-person teaching weekends held in central London.
Each year has a distinct developmental focus. The programme moves from deepening self-awareness and theoretical grounding in Year 1, through increasingly sustained clinical work in Year 2, to integration, depth, and professional identity in Year 3.
An optional Year 4 is available for those wishing to extend their clinical practice and deepen their work beyond the point of qualification.
Term dates TBC
-
Focus: Deepening self-awareness, relational capacity, and theoretical grounding
Year 1 consolidates and deepens the experiential learning of the Foundation Programme. Students develop their capacity for presence, attunement, and relational awareness, while engaging more rigorously with core theoretical models. Alongside this, students begin clinical training through a supported introductory placement, allowing for early relational contact in practice.
Areas of study
The therapeutic relationship as the primary site of change
Advanced relational skills and process awareness
Psychodynamic theory (Freud, Klein, Winnicott, Bion)
Humanistic and existential approaches (Rogers, Yalom, Frankl)
Introduction to transpersonal psychotherapy (Jung, Assagioli)
The unconscious, defence, and internal worlds
Attachment theory and developmental perspectives
Ethics, boundaries, and professional responsibility
Difference, identity, and the relational field — introduction to inclusive and anti-oppressive practice
Clinical training
Introduction to practice through a befriending or relational support placement
Development of core relational capacities in real-world settings
Introduction to supervision and reflective practice
Experiential focus
Deepening self-reflection and awareness of personal process
Introduction to transference and countertransference
Participation in a facilitated process group, developing awareness of group dynamics, difference, and relational patterns
Developing the capacity to remain present with complexity and uncertainty
-
Focus: Developing clinical work and therapeutic capacity in practice
Year 2 marks the transition into more formal counselling practice. Students move into supervised counselling placements and begin working more consistently with clients. The emphasis shifts toward developing the capacity to think clinically, hold the therapeutic frame, and work relationally with clients over time.
Areas of study
The therapeutic frame and holding environment
Transference and countertransference (in depth)
Working with trauma and the nervous system (Levine, van der Kolk)
Working with grief, loss, and endings
Working with risk, safeguarding, and ethical complexity
Somatic and embodied approaches
Diversity, difference, and anti-oppressive practice — power, privilege, and the social and political context of the therapeutic relationship
Clinical work with LGBTQIA+ clients, including identity, marginalisation, minority stress, and relational impact
Working with rupture and repair in the context of difference
Psychopathology and clinical formulation
Clinical training
Transition into counselling placements with ongoing client work
Weekly supervision (individual and/or group)
Case discussion and clinical reflection
Development of ethical and professional accountability
Experiential focus
Participation in a process group, deepening understanding of relational dynamics, power, and difference
Tolerating uncertainty and responsibility in clinical work
Developing a stable and reliable therapeutic presence
Reflecting on impact, projection, and relational dynamics
-
Focus: Integration of theory, practice, and identity as a psychotherapist
Year 3 supports students in consolidating their clinical work, deepening theoretical integration, and developing a clear professional identity as a psychotherapist. There is a greater emphasis on complexity, depth work, and the therapist’s capacity to engage with unconscious, symbolic, and transpersonal dimensions of experience.
Areas of study
Jungian and transpersonal depth work — shadow, archetypes, alchemy, individuation
Working with the symbolic, imagination, and meaning
Advanced relational and psychodynamic practice
Working with complex and long-term presentations
Addiction, compulsion, and repetition
Spirituality, meaning, and existential crisis
Endings, integration, and the ethics of completion
Advanced work with identity, sexuality, gender, and relational diversity — including the impact of culture, stigma, and internalised narratives
Integration of inclusive and anti-oppressive practice into clinical identity and long-term therapeutic work
Professional identity, practice development, and readiness for qualification
Clinical training
Continued counselling placement and client work
Completion of required clinical hours (minimum 250 supervised practice hours)
Advanced supervision and case presentation
Integration of theory into clinical formulation
Preparation for independent practice
Experiential focus
Participation in a final-year process group, supporting integration of personal and professional identity
Development of an authentic therapeutic stance
Working at depth while maintaining ethical clarity and containment
-
Focus: Advanced practice, depth work, and development beyond qualification
Year 4 is an optional advanced stage of training for those wishing to deepen their clinical practice beyond the point of qualification. Designed for graduates of the Diploma, it offers the opportunity to consolidate a clinical identity, refine theoretical thinking, and work with greater confidence, complexity, and symbolic awareness.
This year is not required for qualification at Diploma level.
Advanced clinical training
Continued clinical placement with a focus on depth and continuity of work
Expansion of client hours toward approximately 450 supervised clinical hours
Ongoing supervision and advanced case discussion
Development of longer-term and depth-oriented therapeutic work
Psychiatric placement experience, supporting the development of skills in recognising, assessing, and working appropriately with complex mental health presentations within multidisciplinary settings
Areas of study
Advanced Jungian and transpersonal psychotherapy
Dreamwork and symbolic interpretation in clinical practice
The Shadow, projection, and unconscious communication at depth
Archetypal dynamics and individuation processes
Advanced work with trauma, fragmentation, and integration
Erotic transference, power, and boundary complexity
Advanced clinical work with LGBTQIA+ communities — identity, intimacy, shame, and relational complexity
The impact of socio-political context on psychological life, including oppression, marginalisation, and cultural narratives
Working with the imaginal, creativity, and symbolic process
Integration of theory into an authentic and individual clinical approach
Experiential focus
Advanced process group exploring depth dynamics, projection, and the group unconscious
Integration of personal and professional identity at depth
Refinement of therapeutic presence, authority, and ethical stance
Professional development
Consolidation of identity as an advanced practitioner
Preparation for independent or specialist practice
Exploration of clinical specialism and areas of interest
Applications open Spring 2027
Your tutors
Your tutors bring decades of clinical experience, a passion for social justice, and a belief in healing through human connection.
Guest Lecturers are integral to the delivery of specialist evening lectures and weekend training workshops.
Sarah Parry
CEO | Psychotherapist | Clinical Supervisor | Lecturer
Sarah Parry is the Founder and CEO of The Good Mental Health Company, where she oversees a range of psychotherapy, training and wellbeing services. She is a practising UKCP registered psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and educator with a longstanding interest in human development, personal growth and the factors that enable meaningful change.
-
Before training as a psychotherapist, Sarah worked across the education, public and charitable sectors in leadership, project management, consultancy and teaching roles. She has managed charities, advised organisations through periods of change and founded a personal development organisation. These experiences continue to shape her understanding of individuals, groups and organisations.
Sarah holds a degree in Psychology, a Master’s degree in Health Education and Health Promotion, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Transpersonal Counselling and Psychotherapy. She is also qualified in clinical supervision and adult education.
Her clinical work draws on psychodynamic, Jungian, humanistic and relational traditions. She is particularly interested in the ways unconscious processes influence relationships, identity, organisations and culture.
Sarah is passionate about psychotherapy training and believes that the wisdom of thinkers such as Freud, Jung, Winnicott, Klein and Yalom remains deeply relevant today. Alongside a team of experienced clinicians, she is committed to creating learning experiences that are intellectually rigorous, personally meaningful and firmly connected to contemporary clinical practice.
Whilst students will learn from a range of experienced tutors, Sarah remains closely involved in the programme and oversees its development, ensuring that the quality of the learning experience reflects the standards and values on which The Good Mental Health Company was founded.
Elena Adams
Psychotherapist | Clinical Supervisor | Lecturer
Elena Adams is a UKCP-registered psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and educator with extensive experience working with adults, children, young people and families. Alongside her clinical practice, she teaches psychotherapy at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, supporting the development of future practitioners and helping students connect theory with lived experience and clinical practice.
-
Elena trained in systemic psychotherapy and holds a deeply relational view of human experience, understanding individuals within the wider contexts of family, community, culture and society. Her work is also informed by transpersonal perspectives, with an interest in meaning, personal growth and the ways people make sense of themselves and their lives.
Before becoming a psychotherapist, Elena worked for many years in television, communications and event management, running her own production company and leading creative projects across corporate and broadcast settings. These experiences continue to inform her understanding of people, relationships, organisations and the challenges of navigating change.
As a teacher, Elena is known for creating thoughtful and engaging learning environments that encourage curiosity, reflection and dialogue. She is passionate about supporting students to develop both personally and professionally, helping them build confidence, self-awareness and a deeper understanding of the therapeutic relationship.
Alongside her teaching and clinical work, Elena supports a range of charitable and community-based initiatives and is pleased to contribute her experience and expertise to The Good Mental Health Company’s Foundation training programme.
Maria Pierides
Psychotherapist | Supervising Director | Lecturer
Maria Pierides is the Supervising Director of The Good Mental Health Company, where she oversees clinical placements and contributes to the training and development of trainee therapists. She is an HCPC-registered Art Psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and educator, working in both organisational settings and private practice.
-
Originally trained as both an artist and psychotherapist, Maria’s academic and clinical interests lie at the intersection of creativity, symbolism and psychological development. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Art Psychotherapy and her work is informed by psychodynamic, psychoanalytic and relational traditions, with a particular focus on the role of imagery, representation and symbolic expression in facilitating psychological insight and emotional transformation.
Maria has a longstanding interest in the contribution of unconscious processes to human experience and relationships. Drawing on object relations and post-Kleinian theory, particularly the work of Wilfred Bion, she is interested in how emotional experience is contained, processed and thought about within therapeutic and supervisory relationships. Her clinical and supervisory practice places particular emphasis on the development of reflective capacity, the use of countertransference as a source of clinical understanding, and the creation of conditions that support psychological growth.
Alongside her clinical work, Maria has extensive experience supporting trainees and early-career practitioners. She is committed to fostering rigorous reflective practice and encouraging students to engage critically with theory whilst remaining attentive to the lived, relational and emotional dimensions of therapeutic work.
Maria brings a thoughtful and integrative approach to teaching, combining psychodynamic scholarship with clinical experience. She is particularly interested in supporting students to develop the capacity to think psychologically, engage with complexity and cultivate a deeper understanding of both themselves and the clients with whom they work.
Glenn Delikan
Acupuncturist | Lecturer
Glenn brings a broad multidisciplinary background as an Acupuncturist, martial artist, fitness instructor, nutritionist, and therapist, which informs a grounded, whole-person perspective. He has extensive experience working with individuals with special educational needs, as well as people living with a range of mental and physical health needs, and is known for his adaptable, sensitive, and non-pathologising approach.
-
Glenn’s work is informed by an understanding of the close relationship between body, mind, and nervous system. He supports clients experiencing stress, anxiety, chronic pain, fatigue, injury recovery, and psychosomatic presentations, with treatment plans tailored to individual needs, capacities, and therapeutic goals. His practice emphasises regulation, safety, and collaboration.
Glenn brings a broad multidisciplinary background as a martial artist, fitness instructor, nutritionist, and therapist, which informs a grounded, whole-person perspective. He has extensive experience working with individuals with special educational needs, as well as people living with a range of mental and physical health needs, and is known for his adaptable, sensitive, and non-pathologising approach.
Glenn holds a LicAc and a BSc (Hons) in Acupuncture and is a registered member of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC). His additional qualifications include diplomas in Myofascial Release Therapy, Indian Head Massage, and Sports Massage, alongside qualifications in Sports Nutrition, Sports Massage, Fitness Instruction and Personal Training, Fitness & Health Appraisal, and NFSH Healing Development (Parts 1 & 2). He is also Chief Instructor at Sanjuro Martial Arts. Glenn sees new patients within his North London Acupuncture Clinic: Five Element Acupuncture.
Assessment and progression
Assessment within the Diploma is ongoing, reflective, and grounded in clinical practice. Students are evaluated not only on their academic understanding, but on their development as practitioners within the therapeutic relationship.
Assessment methods include
Written assignments integrating theory, clinical thinking, and personal reflection
Ongoing evaluation of clinical work through supervision
Case presentations and reflective discussion
Assessment of ethical awareness, professional conduct, and capacity to work safely with clients
Engagement in experiential learning, including group process
Clinical supervisors contribute to the assessment of students’ readiness for progression. Progression through the training is dependent on students demonstrating sufficient clinical competence, relational capacity, and ethical responsibility at each stage.
Outcome
Graduates of the Diploma leave the training as grounded, reflective, and relationally capable psychotherapists, ready to practise across a range of clinical settings.
Successful completion of the three-year programme supports eligibility for BACP registration, subject to meeting all required criteria — including completion of a minimum of 250 supervised clinical practice hours.
The training does not simply produce practitioners. It forms them.
The training pathway
The Diploma forms part of a structured professional training pathway at TGMHC:
Foundation Certificate in Counselling & Psychotherapy (1 year) — an immersive introduction to therapeutic practice and personal development
Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy (3 years) — professional training toward qualification as an integrative transpersonal psychotherapist
Year 4: Advanced Clinical Practice (optional) — deepening beyond qualification for those wishing to extend their practice
The Foundation Certificate is the standard entry point for the Diploma. Applicants with prior counselling or psychotherapy training at equivalent level are also welcome to apply.
Fees
Application fee: TBC
Course fee: £6,450 per year
(including a £300 non-refundable deposit)
Payment plans may be available — please contact us for further information.
Applications open Spring 2027
Register your interest
Leave your details below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can