Level 6 Relational Diploma in Child and Adolescent
Psychotherapeutic Counselling
This Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling is grounded in a relational–developmental integrative framework, drawing on psychoanalytic and psychodynamic traditions, attachment theory, contemporary developmental neuroscience, and creative, play-based and projective methodologies. The training is explicitly contextual and systemic, holding the child or young person not as the object, but as an individual embedded within the relational, social, cultural, educational, and ecological systems in which they grow, live, learn, play, and develop.
Central to this approach is the understanding that psychological distress in childhood and adolescence is rarely located within the child alone. Instead, distress is understood as emerging at the intersection of neurodevelopment, relational history, environmental demands, and systemic fit. Trainees are therefore supported to work ethically and developmentally, avoiding the inappropriate placement of responsibility on the child, and instead engaging meaningfully with the adults, institutions, and contexts around them.
Relational–Developmental Integration
The theoretical foundations of the Diploma integrate:
Neurodifference and the I-AM Model
A distinctive feature of this training is its strong and explicit focus on neurodifference, understood as both incorporating and extending beyond prevailing neurodiversity frameworks. Neurodifference is approached as a relational and contextual phenomenon, shaped by the interaction between neurobiology, environment, expectation, and adaptation.
The course is underpinned by the I-AM ModelÒ (Intervention and Adaptive Model), developed by the course leader, Anna Tuttle. The I-AM Model provides a structured yet flexible framework for understanding when intervention is necessary, when adaptation is more appropriate, and how practitioners can work ethically and creatively within real-world constraints. Trainees are supported to critically evaluate dominant narratives around pathology, support, inclusion, and functioning, and to develop practice that is both developmentally sound and socially responsive.
An Innovative and Practice-Facing Curriculum
This Diploma offers an innovative curriculum that actively challenges traditional training and assessment models, while maintaining academic rigour and professional accountability. The programme recognises that contemporary child and adolescent practitioners are required to communicate, assess, and intervene across a wide range of contexts, audiences, and media.
Accordingly, assessment is designed to support trainees in developing skills they will be required to use as registered practitioners. While reflective and theoretically grounded written work remains important, the course moves beyond an over-reliance on traditional academic essays. Assessment methods may include:
Development of the Practitioner
Alongside clinical and academic learning, the Diploma places strong emphasis on the development of the practitioner as a reflective, relational, and ethically grounded professional. Trainees are supported to engage with their own relational histories, assumptions, and positionality, recognising how these shape therapeutic presence and decision-making.
The training foregrounds reflexivity, supervision, personal therapy, and group process as essential components of learning. Growth is understood as developmental and relational, rather than purely competency-based, and trainees are encouraged to integrate personal, theoretical, and practice-based learning over time.
Aims of the Diploma
By the completion of the programme, trainees will be equipped to:
DATES AND COSTS COMING IN NEXT FEW DAYS
Psychotherapeutic Counselling
This Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling is grounded in a relational–developmental integrative framework, drawing on psychoanalytic and psychodynamic traditions, attachment theory, contemporary developmental neuroscience, and creative, play-based and projective methodologies. The training is explicitly contextual and systemic, holding the child or young person not as the object, but as an individual embedded within the relational, social, cultural, educational, and ecological systems in which they grow, live, learn, play, and develop.
Central to this approach is the understanding that psychological distress in childhood and adolescence is rarely located within the child alone. Instead, distress is understood as emerging at the intersection of neurodevelopment, relational history, environmental demands, and systemic fit. Trainees are therefore supported to work ethically and developmentally, avoiding the inappropriate placement of responsibility on the child, and instead engaging meaningfully with the adults, institutions, and contexts around them.
Relational–Developmental Integration
The theoretical foundations of the Diploma integrate:
- Psychoanalytic and relational psychoanalytic thinking, including concepts of transference, countertransference, containment, and unconscious communication
- Attachment and developmental theories across infancy, childhood, and adolescence
- Contemporary neuroscience, including affect regulation, sensory processing, stress systems, and neurodevelopmental variation
- Creative and experiential methods, including play, symbolism, storytelling, art-based and embodied approaches
- Systemic and contextual perspectives, recognising the influence of family, education, culture, power, and social location
Neurodifference and the I-AM Model
A distinctive feature of this training is its strong and explicit focus on neurodifference, understood as both incorporating and extending beyond prevailing neurodiversity frameworks. Neurodifference is approached as a relational and contextual phenomenon, shaped by the interaction between neurobiology, environment, expectation, and adaptation.
The course is underpinned by the I-AM ModelÒ (Intervention and Adaptive Model), developed by the course leader, Anna Tuttle. The I-AM Model provides a structured yet flexible framework for understanding when intervention is necessary, when adaptation is more appropriate, and how practitioners can work ethically and creatively within real-world constraints. Trainees are supported to critically evaluate dominant narratives around pathology, support, inclusion, and functioning, and to develop practice that is both developmentally sound and socially responsive.
An Innovative and Practice-Facing Curriculum
This Diploma offers an innovative curriculum that actively challenges traditional training and assessment models, while maintaining academic rigour and professional accountability. The programme recognises that contemporary child and adolescent practitioners are required to communicate, assess, and intervene across a wide range of contexts, audiences, and media.
Accordingly, assessment is designed to support trainees in developing skills they will be required to use as registered practitioners. While reflective and theoretically grounded written work remains important, the course moves beyond an over-reliance on traditional academic essays. Assessment methods may include:
- Clinical and professional report writing
- Letters to parents, schools, and multidisciplinary professionals
- Referrals and formulation documents
- Training and psychoeducational materials for community and institutional settings
- Verbal and dialogical assessments
- Case-based presentations and reflective process work
- The creation and critical evaluation of audio-visual and digital materials
- Engagement with emergent and developing evidence bases, including critical appraisal of when and how such evidence can be ethically applied
- Consideration of social media, public discourse, and contextual influence on mental health narratives
Development of the Practitioner
Alongside clinical and academic learning, the Diploma places strong emphasis on the development of the practitioner as a reflective, relational, and ethically grounded professional. Trainees are supported to engage with their own relational histories, assumptions, and positionality, recognising how these shape therapeutic presence and decision-making.
The training foregrounds reflexivity, supervision, personal therapy, and group process as essential components of learning. Growth is understood as developmental and relational, rather than purely competency-based, and trainees are encouraged to integrate personal, theoretical, and practice-based learning over time.
Aims of the Diploma
By the completion of the programme, trainees will be equipped to:
- Work relationally and developmentally with children and adolescents across a range of presentations
- Engage thoughtfully and ethically with families, schools, and wider systems
- Apply integrative theory in context-sensitive and neurodevelopmentally informed ways
- Navigate complexity, uncertainty, and difference without defaulting to reductive or pathologising frameworks
- Communicate professionally across written, verbal, and digital formats
- Practice with creativity, rigour, compassion, and critical awareness
DATES AND COSTS COMING IN NEXT FEW DAYS