Family therapy training

Hi, I was after some advice about family therapy training in london if any one could help or point me in the right direction. I was lookin to start the training in sept this year. I was wanting to obtain funding/ sponsorship for the course, I have approached my current employers a child protection team in a local Authority and they have said they are not able to fund me. After a good deal of web browsing I have been unable to find any vacancies going for any type of family therapy trained vacancy schemes, do they even exist. Alternatively is anyone aware of any scholarships/bursaries available as I couldnt find these either. Been in post as a child protection social worker for 18 months now and ideally would want to work in a dedicated family therapy team when training or at least somewhere a bit calmer as it has been a very tough start to the career that I did want a break from. Thanks Rupert

• Filed under: Family therapy

I think you may have answered your own question. This kind of skill is most likely to be something people pay to fund themselves for as a way out of c.p. I would be very surprised if a  l.a came up with the cash.

Redana sounds about right. Try www.aft.org.uk for advice And maybe also family therapy/systems friendly l.a. like hackney, Cambridgeshire to see if they have s.work vacancies. Good luck.

Sometimes funding for this kind of therapeutic training is/has been available for social workers working in CAMHS or adult mental health, but these days with pots of money for training drying up or being non-existant funding is rarely available.

Hi Rupert, I did my MSc in Systemic Training 2005 -2007. A lot of courses require you to have foundation and intermediate training before doing the MSc. I did the foundation and luckily funding through the NHS was available (although I was working for the LA at the time - I was working with children with additional needs). I know people ont the MSc course at present but are having to fund themselves. The best training ever... What about contacting your local CAMHS lead family therapist, in the meantime it helps to do the prep courses which financially are more managable. Good luck!  

It's possible that some of the larger charities would be willing to employ someone based on Social Work qualification and (probably substantial, relevant) post-qualifying experience then fund therapeutic training/qualification once the worker was established with them (probably after at least a year).

My advice would be to look for opportunities to gain more specialist experience (co-working? Asking for particular types of cases if this is a possibility?) and maybe some smaller pieces of relevant training to strengthen your CV, then to look for other jobs where you might be able to do more of this type of work. 

That's assuming family therapy is what you really want to do - I wondered how definate that is because you say you want to go somewhere a bit calmer and there are other options.

If you are genuinely interested and motivated  in this particular area (as opposed to in need of a change/break) and can get that across well, you will be stronger at interview.