CCPE Reviews 13

I would highly recommend CCPE to anyone who wants to put the work in. Its holding, structure and support has been invaluable. I feel I gained far more than I could have anticipated from this institution and I feel excited and hopeful for anyone about to embark upon the journey here. It’s not easy but it’s worth it. It’s more than an academic training, it’s also a gift to yourself.

If you offered me a Men in Black ‘neuralyzer’ to wipe from my brain the last five years I spent training at CCPE, I’d be tempted to say yes. But only because it feels incredibly bittersweet knowing I will never again have the profound experience of my Foundation year or the subsequent four years I spent on the Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

To anyone considering psychotherapy as a career I would recommend CCPE in a heartbeat - I say this as someone who at times found this training, for a variety of reasons, gruelling, frustrating, astonishing and humbling.

The structure of this course is deeply intentional, the academic and experiential learning tracks along your personal psychotherapeutic journey. At least it did for me. They say it takes a village right? Well CCPE is in many ways that village. The supervisors, facilitators and affiliated placements on offer, such as, The Clinic, The Caravan and Fresh Start have an intimate understanding of your training. In my opinion this is a well considered container, which can inadvertently be overlooked, it is clearly designed to hold CCPE’s rich, comprehensive and integrative training.

Are there things I could critique, well of course there are, anyone who studied alongside me can vouch for my strong opinions. This course is experiential and academic, so in that sense an entry point for a diverse aptitude of learning. As someone who came to CCPE as a graduate with a zest for academic rigour my thirst was more often than not quenched, with many accomplished and inspiring lecturers and teachers, not withstanding the odd marker, who I felt potentially missed the mark. On the occasions that I was not fully satisfied, which is a common occurrence amongst all academic institutions, there was always my independent reading to fall back on and no shortage of faculty and supervisors who were always delighted to chew the cud with you. The additional, biannual, one to one and group tutorials were another opportunity to voice individual concerns and fill any gaps in learning, while the heads of each year always made themselves accessible.

I could of course compile a list of suggestions for improvement, however, in the interests of balance I would then need to list all the phenomenal aspects of this training and they truly are far too many to mention. I began this course not at all sure I wanted to become a psychotherapist, half way in I became nervous about how much I wanted to become a psychotherapist. Today I find myself on the cusp of graduation with a renewed sense of excitement about the future - for this I’m genuinely grateful.
Do the training at CCPE, I’m so glad I did.

This is an extraordinary training. I found the personal process side of the course to be incredible and worth the financial investment alone–you do come out transformed, whether you end up practicing as a therapist or not. I found the academic side lacking in depth and rigour at times and not very attuned (sometimes even judgemental) about more current advances in therapy, like psychedelic-assisted therapy. There's a lot of room for improvement, but if you're willing to do your own studying outside the training and participate full-heartedly in the process, you'll get your money's worth.

I absolutely loved my time here. Began on the Foundations of Counselling course in 2009, went on to study the Diploma in 2010. Finally, after some stops and starts owing to financial difficulty, graduated as an Integrative /Transpersonal psychotherapist in 2017.
The training changed my life and, although I don't currently work as a psychotherapist, I've integrated what I learned there into all aspects of my life.

I trained here and did my MA with them too. If you want to be a therapist and have a sense of a larger reality of consciousness or spirituality, this is the place to go. Other places might be able to offer the essential skills training, but CCPE goes beyond in providing a platform to challenge yourself and how you understand life, and to grow and change in the process. Like every instititution, it falls down on process and adminstration from time to time, and as a large organisation it occasionally has to deal with interpersonal or quality issues. Show me somewhere that doesn't! But as an opportunity to learn, practice and grow, it is unparallelled. It's not an intellectual exercise, it's experiential, personal and spiritual growth - if you're up for it.

Truly wonderful institution with wonderful tutors, transformational courses and beautiful energy. The counselling and psychotherapy training I undertook was life-changing. The rigorous syllabus blends the ancient wisdom of the East with the modern psychology of the West in an uplifting, connecting and life-affirming way. Very experiential training with lots of inspiring and exciting creativity - dream work, somatic experiencing, visualisations...all under a beautiful, spiritual umbrella that helps us see and honour the soul nature of those we serve.

I have just completed the 4 year Integrative Transpersonal Psychotherapy diploma. It has been a very positive and life changing journey with top class tuition. The Transpersonal is the future to create mind/ body holistic balance.

The diploma is an exceptional and unique training because it is so experiential. Most of the other courses I looked at before I decided to join were very theory focused and the diploma offered me a way to work with my own issues, and processes, as well as learn the theories. It made me a much more rounded person and therefore a better therapist. The building is also special.

CCPE provides an excellent grounding in foundational psychotherapeutic practice and theory. It places an emphasis on experiential learning, and bridging spirituality within psychotherapy. The diploma in particular exposes students to a diversity of therapeutic modalities (person-centred, Gestalt, existential, psychodynamic, transpersonal, transactional analysis, creative imagination and dream work, etc) which leads to attaining a significant competency when working integratively with clients. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time there and am so grateful to have met lifelong friends within my peer group.

I've nearly competed training at CCPE and it has been an amazing experience. I have learnt so much, both in terms of the theory and practice of psychotherapy, and about myself. I can't recommend it highly enough.

The quality of the teaching is poor. One lecture on Freud just involved someone sitting in front of the class reading from a handout. The so-called Gestalt experiential weekend was undertaken by a yogi practitioner, who by his own admission knew nothing about Gestalt, and the handouts quoted vague references to Gestalt including referencing Counselling Directory to describe Gestalt therapy. The TA lectures were undertaken by a non TA practitioner, as was the basic CBT and I could go on. A more fruitful student experience could be had by bringing in visiting speakers and creating a juxtaposition with their own integrative transpersonal framework) but that would require a complete clear out of staff to allow for new thinking. The limitations are that the director has micromanaged the place for decades (and in fairness has done a commendable job in building it up), but he has surrounded himself with "yes" people. I sense its days are numbered. The student intake will be down in the next academic year as its main draw has up to now been the attractiveness of its building and the canal backdrop to the main lecture room. However, now that the teaching and groupwork is all online I suspect that students will look at the fees and vote with their feet and go elsewhere.

If you're a student in the post-covid world trying to train as a psychotherapist - avoid this place! They're not capable of dealing with changes and hardly give a damn about what their students think.

If you're a client looking for low cost therapy at CCPE, it'll be provided by one of the students, who'll just be doing it to clock their training hours. Do yourself a favour! Go elsewhere!

Training at this institute is in depth, but they treat their students like kids - infantilise them. Too many hidden costs of training - like private supervision - and in times of crisis, like covid they bar students from taking on private clients. Feel sorry for who chose ccpe.