Study with us

Study with us

Since 1984, Metanoia Institute has offered training that brings together five leading psychotherapy traditions—Humanistic, Person-Centred, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, and Integrative—within one shared professional environment.

This diversity enriches all our training programmes, including our Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught and Research programmes, as well as Post-Qualification pathways such as our MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, BSc One-Year Top Up, Clinical Supervision training, and PGCertHE.

We’re known for delivering relational, high-quality, part-time, university-validated and professionally accredited training in counselling, psychotherapy, counselling psychology, and related disciplines.

Explore our courses

Foundation

Embarking on a career in counselling and psychotherapy begins with a solid foundation in both theory and practical skills, and our Certificate in Therapeutic Skills and Studies at Metanoia Institute offers a flexible, accessible way to take that first step. You’ll be introduced to key therapeutic concepts while developing practical skills you can apply in real-life settings, whether you’re considering a future in counselling or already working in people-focused roles such as nursing, social work, youth work or teaching. Delivered online to fit around your existing commitments, the course is designed to help you build confidence, explore your interests, and start shaping your next steps in a way that works for you.

At Metanoia Institute, we offer two undergraduate programmes designed to equip you with the knowledge, skills, and professional accreditation needed for a successful career in counselling and psychotherapy, giving you clear pathways depending on your experience and goals.

Our BSc (Hons) in Counselling, accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and validated by Middlesex University, combines strong academic teaching with hands-on development and lets you choose between Integrative Humanistic Counselling or Person-Centred Counselling, so you can shape your training around your interests.

If you’re already in practice and want to take the next step, our BSc (Hons) in Reflective Therapeutic Practice (One Year Top-Up) offers a focused way to build on your existing skills, gain a full undergraduate degree, and deepen your clinical confidence through a blend of theory and real-world application, preparing you to work effectively across a range of therapeutic settings.

Metanoia Institute offers a range of UKCP-accredited psychotherapy programmes, designed to train you in different therapeutic approaches while helping you build the confidence and skills needed for real-world practice. You’ll combine academic learning with hands-on clinical experience, developing your self-awareness, interpersonal skills, and ability to work effectively with clients. There’s also the option to study for an MSc alongside your psychotherapy qualification, giving you the same in-depth training with an additional academic award. Throughout your studies, you’ll gain a strong understanding of therapeutic relationships, the process of change, and your own personal development, preparing you to work across a wide range of professional settings.

At Metanoia Institute, we offer advanced postgraduate research programmes designed for professionals seeking to deepen their expertise in counselling psychology and psychotherapy, with clear pathways to senior practice, research, and leadership roles.

Our Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy by Professional Studies (DCPsych) combines intensive professional training with a strong academic foundation, leading to dual accreditation as a UKCP-registered psychotherapist and a BPS/HCPC-registered counselling psychologist, making it ideal if you’re looking to expand both your clinical and professional scope.

For accredited therapists and related professionals who want to develop their research skills, our Doctor of Psychotherapy by Professional Studies (DPsych) offers the opportunity to carry out original research while working towards a doctoral qualification equivalent to a PhD.

Across both programmes, you’ll integrate theory with real-world application, strengthening your expertise and preparing you to take the next step in clinical practice, research, or academia.

Metanoia Institute offers a range of Post Qualification courses to help take your psychotherapy and counselling practice in a new direction. Our courses allow you to build upon your existing qualifications to equip you with the competence and confidence to begin a new vocation in the field.

Quality Assurance and Course Accreditations

he Metanoia Institute is known as an ‘alternative provider’ which means a provider of higher education in England not publicly funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

As an alternative provider, we have successfully applied for our courses to be designated for Student Loans and Disability Support Allowance. We are also in the process of applying for ‘degree-awarding powers’ and have been accepted for registration by the Office for Students.

Professional Bodies

All of the psychotherapy courses at the Metanoia Institute are accredited by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and our counselling courses, by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

This means that these bodies have judged the course content, delivery and assessment to be of the highest professional standards. These bodies use external benchmarks and curricula (such as QAA criteria) to set their standards, and reassess each course every five years to ensure that the highest standards are maintained.

FAQs

Are you a student visa sponsor?

No, Metanoia Institute does not hold a sponsorship license for international students. We therefore cannot accept applications from anyone requiring a student visa.

With the exception of our fully on-line programmes, applicants must be a UK citizen or already hold a visa which allows them to live and study in the UK. If you are not a UK citizen or do not already hold a relevant visa, please check your preferred programme is delivered fully on-line before applying.

Applicants who live abroad, but have the right to live and study in the UK, can be accepted onto our programmes, as long as they are able to attend all on-site teaching session.

We very strongly encourage applicants for clinical courses who plan to live abroad during their studies to speak to the programme team about the practicalities of meeting the clinical requirements of the programme outside of the UK. It may not be possible to meet requirement in other countries depending on local laws, professional regulations and services. It is the applicant’s responsibility to check to ensure that they are able to obtain and access appropriate therapy, supervision and clinical placements in line with Metanoia and accrediting body requirements.

The Apply Online application for our programmes leading to a degree or professional award permits students to apply for one programme of study on the application form. We ask that you please check admissions requirements for the programme carefully before you apply to avoid disappointment. Admission requirements for each programme are set out in at the bottom of their webpage. If you are having difficulty in deciding which programme is right for you, we strongly recommend you attend one of our open events to learn more about our programmes and meet the programme teams.

Book and Pay applications for our introductory workshops, continuing professional development and short clinical courses permit applications for a single course only. However, you can make multiple book and pay applications if there is more than one course you would wish to attend.

Yes, when you start your application, you will be asked to set up an account; once you have created your account you will then be sent an email with a link enabling you to log into your application when needed. 

As you work through your application you will see that there is a ‘save & exit’ button at the bottom of each page. This button will enable you to save your in-progress application and log out of the system. You can log back in and out of your application as many times as you need, using your account details, until you finish it. However, please be aware that once the application deadline has passed, you will no longer be able to submit your application.

Advance entry is available for only a few of our programmes MSc Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes and Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and the Doctorate Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy by Professional Studies (DCPsych). If you wish to apply for entry into a later year of the programme you will need to make both an application for admission to the programme and then complete a portfolio to allow Metanoia to assess your previous learning and experience to enable an Assessment of Prior Learning (APL) and allow your advanced entry to a higher year of study. While we wait for and assess your portfolio, we will progress your application for normal entry.

Please be aware that there is a charge for applications for APL, which must be paid at the time of submitting your supporting portfolio. The portfolio cannot be assessed until the fee is paid and this fee in non-refundable regardless of the outcome of the assessment.

If your portfolio is assessed as being sufficient to permit advanced entry, you will be notified and at the point of enrolment, you will be permitted to enrol into a higher year of study.

Applicants can request to speak with a member of the academic team to discuss their previous training and experience and receive indicative guidance on whether an application for APL is likely to be successful. However, no guarantee of APL can be given prior to submission of the portfolio, APL can only be fully assessed upon the detailed examination of the portfolio.

Applications are first reviewed by our Admissions team to check that the standard entry requirements for the programme(s) applied for have been met.

Applicants who are judged to meet the entry requirements for the programme will then be invited to interview. The specific details of the interview varies between undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research programmes.

For undergraduate BSc Counselling and postgraduate taught UKCP Preparatory Year and MSc programme there will be group interview. This will normally include 3-7 other applicants for the same level of study (BSc/MSc), and at least two members of teaching staff from the programme teams. Interviews are not programme specific, but a member of the programme team to which you have applied will be present. For the DCPsych programme there will be a group interview which will normally include 4 – 9 other applicants for the same programme and at least two members of the teaching staff from the programme team. All group interviews will be online.

For BSc Reflective Therapeutic Practice, MSc Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes and the DPsych programmes there will be an individual online interview, the structure of which will depend upon the programme.

In a few rare cases, where the programme team don’t feel they were able to obtain enough information to make a decision about a candidate during the initial interview, they may ask the candidate back for an exceptional second interview.

Following interviews the programme team will tell the Admissions Team which candidates they wish to offer places to. The Admissions Team will then contact applicants with the outcome.

Where an offer of a place is made, this will normally be either unconditional – which means the applicant has met all admission requirements for the programme, or conditional – which means the applicant has not yet met all the admission requirements for the programme. Where an offer is conditional, the offer letter will set out what conditions still need to be met, for example: receipt of satisfactory reference; completion of skills course, etc. Applicants must meet all conditions prior to the start of the programme, or they will not be permitted to register.

This depends on several factors including, which programme you have applied for, your previous study, and your previous receipt of student loans.

Detailed information about student finance and eligibility requirements is available from the relevant government websites. For English students this is GOV.UK

Your reference should be someone who has known you for at least 18 months, but preferably longer, and within the last three years.

They should be someone who knows you well enough to be able to confirm your suitability for the course you are applying to.

They should be someone independent who has known you in a professional or academic capacity, for example: a manager at your work, a tutor from a degree or professional programme, a supervisor or manager at an organisation you volunteer for.

We will not accept a reference from a family member, a friend, or someone you employ or pay for services (for example a therapist, personal trainer, financial advisor etc).

No, you need to provide the name and contact details for your referee on the application. Please ensure that the details provided are correct, as errors will likely delay your application. Metanoia’s Admissions will contact your referee directly and ask for a reference. We will not accept references received directly from applicants.

You should let your referee know that Metanoia will be emailing them to request a reference for you. We will ask them about their relationship to you, how long they have known you and your suitability for your chosen programme of study.

It is important that you are confident that the referee you provide on your application is willing to act as a reference for you and will respond to Metanoia. Any offer of a place on our programmes will be conditional until a satisfactory reference is received. Applicants unable to provide a suitable reference by the start of their programme will not be permitted to register.

The personal statement questions on the application are designed to give you an opportunity to tell us about why you are wishing to undertake the programme you have applied for and what attributes and experience you think makes you a good candidate for admissions to the programme.

There is guidance on the maximum number of words for each response on the application form. Please note that you will get an error message if you exceed the maximum of 2000 characters permitted by our system. We want you to focus on what you think is most important for the programme team to know about you.

The Certificate in Therapeutic Skills and Studies is required for entry onto our Doctorate Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy by Professional Studies (DCPsych) programme. However, we do consider that it could be a useful course for students interested in any of our other clinical programmes.

Applicants to the DCPsych programme may use a counselling skills qualification from another institution to meet this entry requirement, as long as the programme you studied had 35 hours or more of contact time. You will need to provide a certificate or official transcript with your application to demonstrate that you have successfully completed an equivalent course.

If you have not completed an equivalent course, you must take the Metanoia Certificate. You can find more information about it on the webisite.

One of the entry requirement for our Doctorate in Counselling Psychology by Professional Practice is that applicants must have a Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) to the British Psychological Society (BPS). You will need to provide proof of this on your application form.

To demonstrate that you have GBC status you can either provide an email from BPS confirming you have Graduate membership or you can provide a university transcript stating that your qualification is BPS-accredited for GBC.

Further information is available from BPS on their website: What does the Graduate Basis for Chartered membership (GBC) mean? | BPS

Contact Admissions

If you have any questions about your application, you can contact admissions via email: admissions@metanoia.ac.uk 

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