University of Birmingham

The programme is a full-time, three-year course, and attendance at all components is mandatory. Training comprises several integrated elements, including clinical practice (placements), teaching, academic work, research, and independent study time.

We adopt a competency-based, lifespan approach to training, whereby trainees complete five clinical placements across a range of settings within the West Midlands. Placements provide experience across the lifespan and include work with children, adults, older adults, and people with learning disabilities in a variety of services and client groups. The programme equips trainees to deliver evidence-based and psychologically informed assessments, formulations, interventions, and evaluations, while developing skills in systems thinking, reflective practice, critical self-reflection, leadership, and professional practice. A systems-thinking approach is central to the programme, and we are committed to providing an inclusive curriculum that is both culturally informed and culturally sensitive. Our lifespan model includes five clinical placements, ensuring experience within each of the four core client groups (children, adults, older adults, and people with learning disabilities). The fifth placement is tailored to address individual competency development needs and/or support a trainee's specialist interests.

Programme Structure

The weekly job pattern is, on average, 3 days placement, 1 day study, 1 day teaching and the delivery of the programme is organised into credit-bearing modules across the three years. Trainees must complete and pass all elements of the course to qualify with the ClinPsyD.  

Year 1 Modules:

• Professional Practice in Clinical Psychology
• Clinical Psychology Practice: Lifespan and Models
• Clinical Psychology Placement 1: Foundation Placement (10 months)
• Research in Clinical Psychology
• Service Evaluation in Clinical Psychology

Year 2 Modules:

• Clinical Psychology Practice: Lifespan, Model and Evaluation
• Professional Development and Leadership in Clinical Psychology
• Clinical Psychology Placement 2 (5 months)
• Clinical Psychology Placement 3 (5 months)
• No formal research modules, but trainees continue to develop their research thesis work

Year 3 Modules:

• Clinical Psychology Practice: Theory and Integration Across the Lifespan
• Advanced Practice in Clinical Psychology
• Clinical Psychology Placement 4 (5 months)
• Clinical Psychology Placement 5 (5 months)
• Clinical Psychology Research Thesis
   
• Year 1: 1 10-month Foundation placement
• Year 2: 2 consecutive 5-month placements
• Year 3: 2 consecutive 5-month placements or parallel placements

In year 3, trainees can put forward a preference for a specialist final placement to tailor their training experiences in the direction of their interests and future employment interests.

Academic teaching consists of lectures, seminars, workshops, and group work. The programme is designed for in-person, on-campus delivery. While some teaching may be delivered online where appropriate to the learning objectives of a particular session, hybrid delivery is not supported. Attendance at all teaching sessions is mandatory. Teaching is delivered by a range of programme staff, practitioner psychologists, experts by experience, service users, carers, and other professionals who contribute to clinical psychology practice. Reflective Practice Groups, which are mandatory throughout all three years of training, form a key component of the trainee experience. They provide a dedicated space for trainees to reflect on and integrate their academic, clinical, and research learning, while developing self-awareness, reflective practice skills, professional identity, and resilience. The groups encourage thoughtful consideration of the personal and professional impact of clinical work and support learning through shared reflection and discussion.

We offer a range of innovative assignments and approaches to assessment that are authentic to clinical practice, test the range of skills and knowledge required for practice, and where the overall quality of learning opportunities has been recognised by stakeholders as excellent. The current assignment portfolio includes a range of different types of clinical practice reports and oral presentations, as well as a research-based report, a research proposal, and a reflective practice report.

Our innovative evidence synthesis programme, gives trainees skills in rigorous appraisal and synthesis (i.e., meta-analysis, meta-synthesis, and meta-ethnography) and we actively support research projects (developed with local services/psychologists) evaluating new/novel/innovative interventions as well as studies exploring experiences of under-represented or marginalised groups. The research thesis includes a literature review and an empirical research study.

The course provides an opportunity for a subgroup of trainees to follow a CBT secondary accreditation pathway during the Doctorate course. These trainees will achieve Level 2 BABCP (British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies) Minimum Training Standards, providing them with all the requirements to apply for BABCP Practitioner Accreditation on completion of the Doctorate course. Trainees will be selected for this pathway based on interest and previous experience. The CBT secondary accreditation pathway received BABCP Level 2 accreditation in Summer 2025.