Bangor University - North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

The programme is full-time, and the length of the programme cannot be reduced through the accreditation of prior learning or experience: you are required to complete the full programme of training to qualify. 

a)    Academic Component

The academic component of the programme actively engages you in the learning process.  This is helped greatly by the relatively small size of each year group (currently 16 trainees), allowing plenty of scope for discussion and development of ideas and skills.

You are expected to take an active role in teaching by bringing your own clinical material and relevant personal experiences to discussions, and by taking part in role plays to develop skills.

The academic curriculum emphasises a life span perspective. This means that topic areas can be taught by clinicians from a range of specialisms, thus ensuring that you gain a developmental view and appreciate how the same theoretical models and approaches are applied with different client groups and across different age groups. This will encourage creative and critical thinking and as you will all be on different types of placements, this can enhance your shared learning.

Following the programme’s competence-based model, most of our teaching matches the focus of the competencies developed in each of the five placements (see below under clinical experience).

At the start of year one, you are provided with teaching in line with the BPS Accreditation Foundation Programme standard which has a focus on anti-racism, anti-discrimination and promotion of cultural humility. You will also engage in sessions relevant to the general work of assessment and formulation undertaken by clinical psychologists across a wide range of settings. This includes core engagement, assessment, and some therapeutic skills, as well as professional codes of ethics and conduct, and relevant legal frameworks.

Teaching that occurs while you are on placement, aims to equip you with both the theoretical knowledge and skills to complete robust psychological assessments and formulations.

You will engage in an 8-week mindfulness course as part of your teaching, to set the foundations for learning more about third wave approaches and to use yourselves to help manage the demands of training.

During the second and third placements (intervention I and intervention II), teaching has a greater focus on therapeutic models and skills development, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy.

Other therapeutic models are also introduced as training progresses including Compassion Focused Therapy. During the final competency placement (Working with Systems and Leadership) there is a stronger focus in the teaching on these areas in terms of their theories and practice. 

Our programme has Level 1 accreditation with the Society for DBT in the UK and Ireland, that implements the International DBT Accreditation standards. This means that all of our DBT teaching counts towards accreditation with the Society.  There are additional opportunities during training that will allow you to meet all the knowledge-based competencies for accreditation by the end of training.  Depending on placement availability, some trainees will also have opportunities to acquire all the practice-based competencies required for accreditation.

We have obtained foundation level accreditation from the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (AFT) for our family therapy teaching. In order to obtain the foundation level accreditation, you will need to complete an additional two marked assignments and keep a reflective log of your learning. You will also be offered facilitated peer supervision groups to discuss your learning both on the programme and on placement and this will help bring the systemic ideas to life.

Our teaching in neuropsychology has been recognised by the University of Bristol and makes trainees eligible to enrol on the Post-graduate Diploma in Theoretical and Practical Neuropsychology (PGDipPN), University of Bristol (Adults only), where you can obtain some credit for your teaching and clinical work during your DClinPsy training, which you can carry forward towards becoming a Clinical Neuropsychologists (SRCN) after your training.

We are working steadily to obtain on our accreditation from the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) CBT level 1 accreditation.  

Teaching timetable

Each placement is preceded by a block of teaching spanning between two and six weeks. In your final year, you will have four one-week teaching blocks.

Once you are on placement, weekly teaching days continue for most of the first and second year, which enables ongoing contact with fellow members of your year group, other trainees, and programme team members.

There are also two teaching days each academic year, when all three cohorts come together, and where specialist and current topics are presented and discussed. Titles for recent all cohort teaching days have been ‘Sex and Relationships’ and ‘Working therapeutically outdoors’.

Teaching format

Usually the teaching is delivered in our dedicated teaching rooms in Bangor University, close to the programme team members’ offices with a roomy shared kitchen and dining area.

Occasional remote teaching sessions are employed. When learning remotely, each teaching slot includes an online group session facilitated by the teacher, which can be supported by self-directed learning tasks involving academic papers, podcasts, videos, and PowerPoint presentations. 

Teachers

While programme team members and clinical and academic psychologists within North Wales deliver most of the teaching, psychologists from outside the area and other professionals are also invited to contribute where appropriate.

Members of our People Panel (our expert by experience advisory group) and other service users and carers are actively involved in several teaching sessions throughout the three years. Trainees greatly appreciate and value their perspective and feedback are consistently high.

Trainees give feedback on all academic sessions, thus enabling the programme to keep improving the standards of its teaching.

Academic assignments

There are three academic assignments to be completed across the three years: 

• You start with a problem-based learning assignment, which you work on with fellow trainees.
• In year two, you give a presentation on a professional issue arising from your systemic and leadership placement.
• After the thesis hand in, you write a reflective assignment on your learning, which is formatively assessed.

While the format for the assignments is set, you choose your own clinically relevant topics for these. 

Welsh speakers have the option to submit their work in Welsh and for oral examinations we will organise a translator.

b)    Clinical Experience

Learning continues as you apply theories and practice introduced in the classroom and through independent study to working with your clients and colleagues on placement.

Placements are as follows:

• Year 1: Foundations of Assessment, Formulation and Intervention (Nov – April)
• Year 1: Intervention I (May – October)
• Year 2: Intervention II (November – June)
• Year 2/3: Working with Systems and Leadership (July – December)
• Year 3: Elective/Supplementary (December – September)

All clinical placements will be undertaken within the large geographical area of North Wales, which extends from Wrexham to Pwllheli, Holyhead to Newtown and Dolgellau and cover post-industrial towns and cities as well as rural communities. Placements may also take place in north Powys, e.g. Newtown or Welshpool. We also have placements that offer services across a health board, or across Wales.

Welsh-speaking trainees are often allocated placements where they can use the Welsh language clinically and where possible with Welsh-speaking supervisors.

Placements currently available include: 

• Adult Mental Health: including secondary care mental health services, stepped care service, rehabilitation, eating disorder service, perinatal mental health, substances misuse services, early intervention psychosis service, Ministry of Defence, Welsh Ambulance Service Trust.
• Older Adults including memory clinics and community teams.
• Child and Adolescent: including CAMHS, child health, inpatient adolescent service, neuro-developmental services
• Intellectual Disabilities: child and adult services
• Forensic services: medium secure unit and prison
• Brain Injury: child and adult services.
• Health Clinical Psychology: including renal care, pain management, diabetes, chronic fatigue services, oncology and palliative care, paediatric services, critical care, inherited bleeding disorders, artificial limb service, musculoskeletal service, weight management, cochlear implants.
• Staff wellbeing and support services
• Therapeutic approaches used include, CBT, CBT for psychosis, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, and Family and Systemic therapy.

Placement agreements are negotiated by the supervisor and you, in conjunction with programme staff.

These agreements are reviewed mid-way through the placement for satisfactory progress.

Each placement is evaluated by the clinical supervisor, assessing a full range of clinical and professional competencies.

You provide feedback on all placements to ensure that the high quality of clinical experience is maintained and improved. 

Clinical assignments

• You will write a report of clinical activity (RCA) related to work undertaken in your Foundations of Assessment, Formulation and Intervention placement.
• You complete a report of clinical activity (RCA) relating to your work during your Intervention I placement.
• You complete two RCAs from your longer Intervention II placement, one where you formulate a piece of work from two different theoretical or therapeutic approaches and a second where you will orally present one of the other pieces of your clinical work.
• One of the RCAs has to be a CBT-RCA. Alongside this, you also need to submit a recording of a session where you used CBT, which is rated using the CTS-R, or other relevant assessment tools.

c)    Research

The aim of the research curriculum is to ensure that you gain experience in using a range of research approaches and obtain a sophisticated understanding of and can critically appraise the evidence base underlying clinical practice. Training in research skills occurs throughout the three years.

Research assignments

There are three research projects to be completed over the three years.

• You start with a data analysis project, using large publicly available data sets to answer set questions.  
• The service-related research project is a highly applied piece of research, such as an audit or service evaluation, completed during the second year of the programme.
• Finally, there is the large-scale research project that forms your doctoral thesis, which you work on throughout the programme. The thesis comprises a systematic review or meta-analysis; an empirical study; and a paper on the clinical and research implications of your work. The two first papers are expected to be of a publishable standard and in the last five years alone over 25 trainee papers have been published in academic journals. In your final year you have a viva voce, where you defend your thesis.

The research team members endeavour to support you to do projects in your areas of interest, rather than being assigned projects from a list.

Research supervision is provided by a programme team member, local clinical psychologists, and colleagues in the university. We also have Experts by Experience generating research ideas, advising on trainees’ research ideas as well as joining the supervisory team. Trainees have funds allocated for engagement with Experts by Experience.

The programme supports research projects from across the scientist practitioner tradition, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Recent areas in which trainees have carried out research:

• Difficult Women: Experiences of Health and Help-Seeking in Under-Recognised Areas of Women’s Health.
• Making psychological sense of an altered body.
• Managing bodies under constraint: Physical health, substance use and weight-related outcomes in forensic settings.
• Insight and Meaning: Foregrounding Lived Experience in Mental Health Contexts.
• Mental Health in Sexual Minority Populations: The Role of Social and Contextual Determinants.
• Negotiating Parenthood at the Margins of Perinatal Crisis: Neonatal Care and Perinatal Loss.
• Premanifest Huntington’s disease and wellbeing.

We hold an annual research conference where trainees present their research projects through presentations and posters. We invite new entry trainees to this conference before they start on the programme.  

Assessment

• There are no unseen written examinations on the programme
• You will complete a total of 10 assignments, including your final thesis. At the end of the third year, the thesis is evaluated by viva voce examination.
• Although the format of the assessments is set, you decide on the clinical topic area you want to address.
• External examiners with extensive experience of clinical psychology training programmes play an active role in benchmarking our marking system.
• Welsh speaking trainees have the option of completing their assignments through the medium of Welsh. The programme organises translation services.

The People Panel: Our Expert by Experience Advisory Group

The programme’s expert by experience advisory group was named by its members the ‘People Panel’.  Established in 2008, the panel aims to enhance trainees’ learning from a service user and carer perspective.

We have trainee representation from all cohort years on the People Panel, thus providing regular opportunities for trainees and service users and carers to consult with each other on a wide range of clinically relevant topics and areas of development.

Trainees regard this experience as positive and comment that they appreciate People Panel members’ advice, guidance, and feedback.

Currently the panel comprises individuals who have been involved with clinical psychology services in a range of settings, such as adult mental health, clinical health psychology, older adult, child and adult intellectual disability services substance misuse, perinatal and brain injury services.

The People Panel members are involved in a range of different aspects of the training programme.

• They represent the People Panel on all programme committees.
• They play a key role in our selection procedures for trainees and staff.
• People Panel members co-facilitate CBT workshops where they give feedback directly to trainees on their performance from a service user and carer perspective.
• They are actively involved with several teaching sessions on the programme.

People Panel members act as consultants for the Problem Based Learning assignment.

• Trainees regularly ask the People Panel to comment on aspects of their research projects, from early design ideas to participation information sheets and consent forms and present their projects at various stages of development for advice and feedback. Several trainees have worked closely with experts by experience on their supervisory team, co-producing the research.
• People Panel Members have also been involved in co-producing research projects and are involved in the supervisory team.
• People Panel members attend the annual research fair, where they share their research ideas alongside BCUHB clinical psychologists, with the trainees.
• The People Panel have reviewed the client consent guidelines for trainees on placement, and forms for service user feedback to be completed at the end of the trainee’s involvement. These were originally designed by the People Panel.

At our recent BPS accreditation visit in April 2026, the programme’s People Panel was commended as follows: the engagement of a diverse, committed and passionate group on the People Panel (Service User group), who positively feed into the programme is an area of good practice.

Programme Staff 

Please see our Bangor DClinPsy website for links to our staff's PURE profiles.

Additional contributions to the Programme are made by colleagues from the School of Psychology, Bangor University and Clinical Psychology Departments of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Powys Teaching Health Board.