Welcome
Welcome to the website of Awaken School of Outcome Oriented Psychotherapies Ltd.

Awaken School has taken up the status as a Member Organisation of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) to provide students with a recognised pathway to accreditation as a UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist. We have expanded the number of courses available, and increased the pool of trainers so that students have more options when searching for training.
We now offer Clinical Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy courses in various locations around the country for students to increase their skills and develop exciting new career opportunities. These courses can be taken as additional skills or combined to provide a pathway towards accreditation and for placement on the UKCP Register.
Awaken School is currently part of the Hypnopsychotherapy (H-P) Section of UKCP and after much work Section has updated its Section Training Standards (SETS) to reflect current best practice within other UKCP Sections. The pathway consists of several strands which each student is required to complete:
1) 4 years relevent post graduate training in psychotherapy which must include a minimum of 625 hours of theoretical / methodological / practical training of which there should be a minimum of 500 classroom hours. The reason for specifying training within a classroom environment is so that students are able to develop as psychotherapists through understanding group process and dynamics. Students who try to learn psychotherapeutic process through on-line teaching systems may miss key concepts and understandings.
2) A minimum of 450 hours of supervised clinical work.
3) A minimum of 250 hours of personal development of which at least 48 hours must be personal psychotherapy with a UKCP accredited psychotherapist or equivalent.
4) The total pathway must now exceed 1800 hours of training, practice and self-directed learning and also includes a mental health placement and a final dissertation.
Students on the Awaken School pathway pathway have been fulfilling the vast majority of the requirements through a series of optional programmes in the first 2 years of training and then compulsory modules in years 3 & 4.
The only effective change to the pathway is an increase in both personal development and psychotherapy and from September 2009 all Awaken School students wanting to be accredited must fulfil the new SETS document now in effect.
Consequently, the Awaken School Pathway to Accreditation document has been altered and the new one is available to download by clicking here.
If any student has any questions regarding their individual pathway, please feel free to contact the office by either telephoning 0845 873 2036 or emailing info@awakenschool.co.uk
Change of Section
Last year we were discussing with some Year 4 students the changing nature of the school since 2006 from a mainly hypnopsychotherapy into a more outcome oriented psychotherapy training institute. With that in mind we approached the Humanistic & Integrative Section (HIPs) of UKCP with a view to moving Sections and were reviewed by the HIPs assessing team. The broadly positive report highlighted a number of areas that the school would need to adapt to meet current HIPs standards including:
1) Increasing the face-to-face contact hours (training & supervision) to a minimum of 900.
2) Substantially increasing the number of hours of personal therapy required of students.
An additional consideration is the current work by Skills for Health on mapping occupational standards for psychotherapy. Currently only 4 modalities are being considered by Skills for Health, and this does not include hypno-psychotherapy. As our trainings reflect a more humanistic and integrative approach, we consider that alignment to the Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapies Section (HIPs) will best serve our students. We have also agreed to act as a pilot site to test the National Occupational Standards as they are developed and look forward to sharing this work with our students and UKCP.
After much consideration, and to protect the status of our students and registrants, we have decided to develop to meet the HIPs standards. The Pathway to Accreditation within HIPs for accreditation after 2011 can be downloaded by clicking here.
Of course, suddenly expecting students to commit to extra training, supervision and personal therapy when they may be about to become accredited this summer would be unfair so we have agreed with HIPs to become full members in 2 years time to allow the current students in Years 3 & 4 to become accredited under the current H-P Section standards by September 2011.
If you are currently on the pathway, or are concerned about the changes, please feel free to contact us at the school where we'd be happy to answer any questions
Code of Ethics
We have updated our Code of Ethics and produced a new Corporate & Social Responsibility Policy document to reflect changes within both Section and the School. Anyone interested in downloading the documents can do so by clicking above.
In addition, we have also produced Dissertation Guidelines and details of the Mental Health Familiarisation Placement, both of which now form part of the requirements for UKCP accreditation. These documents are freely available to members of Awaken School and our students and if you would like to receive an electronic copy, please feel free to contact the School at the address below.
Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy: A Postmodern Perspective.
Published by Routledge as part of their Advancing Theory in Therapy series, the book traces the development of Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy from its origins with Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir & Fritz Perls. It places Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy firmly in context by presenting models on the developing personality, attachment and neuroscience and challenges therapists to incorporate a psychodynamic approach within their work. The book uses case studies to illustrate theories and is highly recommended for both accredited psychotherapists and students in their final 2 years of training.
"At last, a book series that will help to make the ideal of effective continuing professional development in the fields of psychotherapy and counselling more of a reality. Without being partisan or requiring an unrealstically high level of existing knowledge, the books offer a unique opportunity for experienced practitioners and advanced students to encounter the cutting edge of theory in their particular theoretical model."
Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology - University of Essex.
"Lisa Wake brings heart, soul, intellect and integrity to the emerging discipline of NLP psychotherapy. She not only brings together what has been done and written before in the area of NLP and psychotherapy, but adds new distinctions and understandings. Very readable and human while maintaining a professional tone throughout."
Bill O'Hanlon, author of Taproots, Change 101 and An Uncommon Casebook.
"It's an important contribution to the field for serious students of NLP".
Penny Tompkins.
"Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy by Lisa Wake is a well researched, extensively referenced, and scholarly examination of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and the advancing model of neurolinguistic psychotherapy. I enthusiastically recommend this book to clinicians, researchers, NLP practitioners, and anyone interested in advancing the science and theory of NLP."
Now published by Routledge, copies can be ordered through Amazon or from the School and to download information on the book, please click here, to download a short summary, please click here.
UKCP's 5-Yearly review of the School
All UKCP Member Organisations are reviewed every 5 years to ensure they are fulfilling their requirements as members of the organisation. Known as the Quinquennial Review (QR), this was of extra interest to the Hypno-Psychotherapy Section as it formed part of the ongoing investigation into Training Standards and Accreditation Procedures. Awaken School was reviewed at the beginning of May and we are very pleased to now be able to announce that we have passed the QR.
Decision:
PASS
AWAKEN have demonstrated both by the overall quality of their submission and presentation on the day of the visit that they do substantially meet the criteria, standards and quality assurance and monitoring requirements of the UKCP. The assessors wish to particularly acknowledge the enormous effort and attention to the development of detail and processes that AWAKEN have undertaken in the past six months in order to ensure that their organisation and training are of an appropriate quality and level.
For those who are interested in reading the full QR report, please feel to download a copy by clicking here.
School Newsletters
The latest School newsletter, dated April 2009 has been sent out to School members and others who have asked to be included on the mailing list. If you would like to download a copy, please click below.
Newsletter April 2009.
If you want a copy of a previous newsletter, please click below.
Newsletter January 2009
Newsletter August 2008
Newsletter February 2008
NI Newsletter Feb 2008
If you would like to receive your own copy of the newsletter when it's issued, please email your request to the office and we will be happy to add your email details to our list.
Awaken School Woodlands Sneck Gate Lane Newby Middlesbrough TS8 0AH
Tel: 0845 873 2036
Email: info@awakenschool.co.uk
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