This 6 day online course is a collaboration of The Link Centre and Manchester Psychotherapy Foundation and will be delivered by Mark Widdowson

Dates : September 2024 - February 2025 6 Days Thursdays 9.30AM – 4.30PM

19th September 2024
17th October 2024
21st November 2024
12th December 2024
9th January 2025
13th February 2025

Course Content: This 6-day course will provide practicing students and qualified counsellors with all the skills and underpinning knowledge they need to practice couples and relationship counselling.

The course will cover the theories and techniques of a range of approaches to couples and relationship therapy and will be solidly based on research findings and evidence-based practice.

It will cover, assessment, interventions and techniques, theories and models of relationships and relationship dynamics, communication and conflict resolution, sex and sexuality in relationships, as well as theories and techniques for dealing with the main problems couples present in therapy.

Participant Numbers: There will be a maximum of 40 participants on this course

Coursework and assessment: Participants will complete a reflective workbook throughout the duration of the course, which will evidence how they have met the relevant competencies required for certification as a couples therapist.

It is recommended that participants set aside one to two hours per week for reading and reflective writing based on their learning and experiences during the workshops and their implementation of the material in their practice. This recommendation is to enable participants to get the most out of the training and cement their learning.

Pre-Course Requirements: Participants should be qualified counsellors or in training and seeing clients in placement. (Students in training should talk through their planned attendance with their supervisor/course tutor)

Course Cost: £795. A non-refundable deposit of £40 is to be made on booking with the balance payable by 1st September 2025.

Refund Policy: Deposits are non-refundable. 50 % of balance will be refunded for cancellations with more than 7 days’ notice

Course Tutor: Dr Mark Widdowson, PhD, MSc, ECP, CTA, TSTA, SFHEA

Professor Mark Widdowson is a UKCP registered psychotherapist based in Manchester. He is also a holder of the European Certificate in Psychotherapy. He is a visiting professor of psychotherapy and clinical psychology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. He was a senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Salford between 2013 and 2024. He has 30 years of clinical experience and has been teaching and writing about Transactional Analysis for 20 years. He is also a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy, which recognises excellence in higher education teaching.

Mark practices using a short term mod, and his specialisms are trauma, depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, sex and sexual problems and is a specialist trauma therapist. In addition to his academic work, he maintains a private practice for individuals and couples/relationships in central Manchester. He also works with a wide range of sexual issues and has been trained in both sex therapy and several models of couples therapy.

Mark has worked extensively with a full spectrum of trauma survivors ever since starting practice. This has included survivors of physical and/or sexual violence, war refugees and torture survivors. He has trained in numerous trauma therapies over the years and now follows his own integrative/ pluralistic model as this seems to fit must better.

Mark is the author of Transactional Analysis: 100 Key Points and Techniques and Transactional Analysis for Depression: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual, and the forthcoming ‘Transactional Analysis: the basics’ both published by Routledge.

He is an active psychotherapy researcher and was awarded the European Association for Transactional Analysis Silver medal in 2014. Mark also won the International Transactional Analysis Association research award in 2017, for his contributions to the evidence base for transactional analysis.

Mark is also a TEDx speaker, and did a psychoeducational piece which he hopes has resolved many pointless fights couples have

Dr Mark Widdowson (UKCP Registered Psychotherapist – Pronouns: He/him)

Certificate in Couples Counselling - 6 Days Online (£760 -Jan to June 2024)