Systemic Practice and Family Therapy PgCert

Enhancing your everyday practice: This highly evaluated Postgraduate Certificate supports professionals in different settings and roles (both child and adult) to understand the core concepts of contemporary systemic practice and utilise systemic skills and techniques to maximise the therapeutic benefit for individual service users or relationship groups in their everyday work. Relationships matter! This one year programme is designed for multidisciplinary professionals working with individuals or relationship/family groups in a wide range of contexts - both child/family and adult services, in the statutory and voluntary sectors.

Relevant settings include family support and child protection; children in care; fostering and adoption; mental health; substance use; justice; physical health and disability; elderly; and adult safeguarding. Systemic practice helps people in close relationships to better understand and support each other. It enables people to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on strengths, and work together to make useful changes in their relationships and their lives.

Teaching and Accreditation: All courses are taught by highly experienced practitioners. They are accredited by Queen’s, the Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice UK (AFT) and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC - PiP Specialist Award). Strategic Alignment: Skills developed in this PG Certificate align with regional strategic developments and priorities including the Mental Health Strategy; ‘Signs of Safety’; ‘Think Family’; NI Framework for Integrated Therapeutic Care; and Trauma Informed Practice.

This one-year multidisciplinary Postgraduate Certificate is the entrance programme to all levels of systemic training at Queen’s. There are three levels of systemic practice and family therapy training: PG Certificate (AFT accredited Foundation - Year 1), PG Diploma (AFT accredited Intermediate - Year 2) and MSc Systemic Psychotherapy (AFT accredited Qualifying level training - Years 3 and 4). Please see relevant webpages for further details.

Systemic practice and family therapy has been found to be effective across the life course in helping children, young people, adults, couples and families struggling with a broad range of difficulties and circumstances. Systemic practitioners, and family and systemic psychotherapists work in many health and social care contexts across child and adult settings, including child and family support services, looked after children’s services, older people’s services, physical health and disability, substance use, justice and mental health services. Please note that this course is not eligible for a Student route visa.

Closing date for applications: Friday 31st July 2026 at 4 pm. Late applications may be considered.