Course FAQ
Brief introduction to the course from Ana Puljic, ECPT Director and Academic Lead.
Cost and Funding
How much does the course cost?
The cost is £10,500 for the 2 years total.
Is the course covered by SAAS funding?
Due to our partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University, students may be eligible for SAAS funding, however, each applicant will need to check this directly with SAAS based on their circumstances. https://www.saas.gov.uk/part-time/funding/postgraduate
What other costs may students expect?
Students will need to arrange and pay for their individual supervision (usually 1h fortnightly) and personal therapy (usually 1h weekly). Sometimes supervisors and therapists offer concession fees for therapists in training, which could go as low as £40 per hour, though more often range between £50 and £80 per hour. Students may be able to access some affordable services, though they’d need to ensure that both their supervisor and therapist are fully qualified and not still in training in order to count these hours towards the couse. Students may also wish to buy some of the books from the reading list if they wish, though online PDF copies of all required readings will be provided. If students will be travelling into Edinburgh from elsewhere, they may also need to factor in their travel costs. Students will also need to cover the cost of joining or updating their PVG (£59 to join, £18 to update an existing one) and arrange professional indemnity insurance (around £40 per year) in time for their placement/work-based learning. Students would also pay for their student membership of an ethical body.
Misc: Cohort size, time requirements, teaching style, teaching content
What will the cohort size be?
We are aiming for the first cohort to be around 15 students.
Will the course be more academic leaning or experiential and creative?
The course will be a mixture of academic and experiential elements on every teaching day. The morning will consist of a 3h lecture, followed by 1h tutorial or experiential. The afternoon will be dedicated to 2 hours of clinical practice or triad skills, and the last hour of the day will be a process group for students to reflect on their learning, experience of the course, the emerging dynamics and their changing identity.
Will there be any focus on psychosexual therapy, family dynamics, or CBT?
There will be an exploration of working with sex, gender and relationships within one module, as well as family dynamics including some concepts from family systemic therapy within another module. No CBT is planned to be covered, although the course may touch on it when exploring issues such as OCD.
What will be the time committment of the course?
Each module is 30 credits, which translates to 300 notional learning hours that learners may expect for the academic elements of the course, which includes the in-person weekly teaching day from 9am to 5pm as well as preparation for assessments and independent learning. Each person’s learning style varies widely, but on average, this roughly translates to 2-3 hours of independent study or reading for every hour of tutor contact. Students will need to be available to attend the teaching day on Wednesdays every week as 85% minimum attendance is required to pass each module. Between 65 and 75 hours are usually needed for preparation for each assignment usually due at the end of each module. On top of this, students will engage with work-based learning (placement) at ECPT’s therapy service after the end of Module 1, where they’ll be allocated a 3-hour slot and gradually build up towards seeing 3 clients on a regular weekly basis. For this, students will need to clear one morning / lunchtime / afternoon on a weekly basis. Students will also need to think about when they’d schedule their individual supervision (usually 1h fortnightly for a ratio of 1:6 supervision to client hours) and their personal therapy (usually 1h weekly for a total of 80 hours).
Applications, Interviews, Entry Requirements
When will we hear about interviews?
After the application deadline on 21st June. Interviews will take place over the month of July, though some early applicants may be invited for interviews for the end of June.
How does the £500 deposit work?
Applicants who are invited to interview will be required to provide a deposit to secure their interview place. The deposit would be refunded to any unsuccessful interview candidates who aren’t offered a place on the course in the end. Students will be invoiced by GCU directly for the remaining £10,000 fees to be paid over the duration of the course. Installment plans available via GCU. Fees are revised annually.
How can I apply?
Please download the brochure from our website and there will be a link to MS Forms at the end to fill out the application form. You will also need to send us your qualifications and some other documents by email.
What if I haven’t completed the COSCA Counselling Skills course yet?
Applicants who have an UG degree can apply with just modules 1 and 2 of the COSCA Certificate (or equivalent). For any non-UK degrees, these will first need to be checked by GCU.
What if I’ve completed another foundation course that’s not a COSCA Counselling Skills Certificate?
We would need to pass your qualification and its syllabus to our colleagues at GCU to check it for equivalency with the COSCA Counselling Skills Certificate.
Do I need proof of English language proficiency?
Non-UK applicants who have completed a UK UG degree don’t need any further proof of English language proficiency. Non-UK applicants without a UK degree will need to provide an IELTS or other English language proficiency test found here: https://www.gcu.ac.uk/internationalstudy/howtoapply/englishlanguagerequirements
When do you start accepting applications for 2027 entry?
We are happy to receive speculative applications from students interested in joining the 2027 cohort, although we will most likely open our formal applications for 2027 from around January 2027. If you’d like to be notified of this, please sign up to our newsletter or keep an eye out on our social media.
Teaching Location and Timings
Where will the teaching take place?
At ECPT office in Edinburgh which is located near the east end of Meadows on Causewayside.
Will students be required to go to Glasgow Caledonian University campus?
No, all teaching would take place from our ECPT office in Edinburgh, but students will have access to GCU facilities such as the library etc.
Are any parts of the course due to be held online?
No online sessions are planned for now and all teaching would take place from ECPT office in Edinburgh, but in case of lecturer sickness or other circumstantial events we may need to hold an online session on occasion.
What will be the teaching times and days?
Teaching will take place on Wednesdays from 9am to 5pm, weekly for the duration of each 14-week module. Modules 1 and 3 take place from early September to early December, whereas Modules 2 and 4 take place from early February to late May, and the latter include 1 week off during the reading week which falls around Easter.
When do students normally have deadlines for submitting their coursework?
For Modules 1 and 3, students will normally have a deadline around the second week of January, whereas for Modules 2 and 4, the deadline will normally fall around the last week of May.
MSc Year
Could I just do the MSc year if I already have a Diploma from elsewhere?
This will depend on the specifics of your previous training and will need to be checked by our GCU colleagues.
How long would the full MSc Counselling Practice be?
ECPT’s Existential Psychodynamic Therapy Pathway lasts 2 academic years and choosing to complete the full MSc Counselling Practice by completing the additional 1-year dissertation module would bring the total length to 3 academic years. The MSc year would be delivered by GCU.
What is the cost of the MSc year?
GCU can advise on the most up-to-date information on this, but as it stands at the point of writing (May 2026), the fee of the dissertation module is £2434.
Placements / work-based learning
Where will practical placements take place?
Placements or work-based learning will take place at ECPT’s own therapy service.
Do I need to complete the work-based learning (placement) element if I’m already a qualified therapist in another modality? Am I allowed to use my private practice for this?
All students would still need to complete the work-based learning (placement) through ECPT’s own therapy service and qualified therapists couldn’t use their private practice to substitute this.
When would the placements/work-based learning elements start?
After completing Module 1 from January/February.
How many client hours would we need to complete as part of the work-based learning (placement) element?
150 hours.
Is it possible to see more than 3 clients during the work-based learning/placement element?
It is possible in theory, though students won’t have the opportunity to go much higher than 5-8 clients per week during their placement with us (3 clients is the norm), however, they could potentially organise a second placement depending on your time availability.
Personal therapy requirements
How many hours of personal therapy do we need to complete as a part of the course requirements?
80 hours.
Can personal therapy that applicants undertook prior to the course count towards the 80 hours required?
No, even if personal therapy was taken before the course, students would still be required to undertake the specific number of therapy hours during the course.
What modality can the personal therapy be in?
The therapist must have a qualification in psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, or existential therapy.
Supervision requirements
Are qualified therapists allowed to keep an existing supervisory relationship with a supervisor who’s not trained in psychodynamic or existential modality?
Yes, for the purposes of their private practice or other therapy work, but for the purposes of the course they would also need to engage with a separate supervisor trained in the psychodynamic or existential modality.
How much supervision should students engage in?
Students need to make sure they have an overall ratio of 1:6 supervision to client hours. This will mean roughly 25 hours of individual supervision over the 2 years of the course at a fortnightly frequency.
Does group supervision count towards supervision hours?
Students can count group supervision hours towards the overall supervision hours by dividing the length of the supervision session by the number of supervisees (e.g. for a monthly 2h group supervision offered by the course with 4 supervisees, students can claim 30minutes of supervision for their supervision log).
SCoPEd, Accreditation, Credits
How does the ECPT training course map onto the SCoPEd framework?
Like all other Diploma-level courses, the course maps onto column A. The total contact training hours of the course are 417 hours, which is above the 400 hours required for Column A but below 450 hours required for Column B. Likewise, students will complete 150 hours of placement/work-based learning during the course, which is above the 100 hours required for column A but below 450 hours required for column B. Students normally apply for column B accreditation post-qualification after gaining additional hours in private practice or employment, and this isn’t required to be achieved before opening private practice. Students will be able to meet the 450 contact training hours when applying for column B post-qualification as they would also add the hours of their Foundation level training such as COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills. https://www.pcpb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SCoPEd-Framework-January-2022-amended-2025.pdf
Is the course accredited with a specific ethical body?
We are an organisational member of NCPS (National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society) which is among the 6 ethical bodies along with BACP and COSCA that are part of the SCoPEd, which is an attempt to standardise qualifications in psychotherapy and counselling. The first cohort of the course won’t be accredited automatically as we can only apply for accreditation after the first cohort, but the course will be designed in such a way that the graduates will be able to seek their own registration or accreditation with NCPS or any of the other major ethical bodies.
After graduation, what main modalities will students be able to use?
Students will be able to use existential and psychodynamic modalities.
Will this course lead to being a counsellor or psychotherapist?
Yes, it would be a qualifying course after which you would be eligible to start working as a psychotherapist in the UK. Counsellor and psychotherapist are interchangeable terms in the UK which are not protected.
Is the course academically validated? How many credits does it have?
Yes, the course is credit rated as SCQF Level 11 (Masters level qualification) and quality assured through our partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University. The 2-year Existential Psychodynamic Therapy Pathway contains 120 credits, whereas the full 3 years of the MSc Counselling Practice is 180 credits total.