Postgraduate Certificate Psychological Well-Being Practitioner (Low Intensity)

Recognition of the personal and social cost of unmet mental health need within primary care has led to a government-supported initiative to broaden access to psychological therapies, introducing the cutting-edge role of psychological well-being practitioners. This brings evidence-based cognitive behavioural treatments to all people who experience mild to moderate depression or anxiety.

You can study Psychological Well-being Practice (PWP) with us at one of two levels. Our Graduate Certificate is relevant for those without an undergraduate degree, who can demonstrate they have the skills to be able to study at level 6, and our Postgraduate Certificate is relevant for those who already have an undergraduate degree. We also offer an apprenticeship route to the Graduate level qualification - find out more about this on our apprenticeships pages.

Our certificates in PWP enable you to work with people who experience common mental health problems. You will learn to use a range of protocols derived from the best evidence based practice methodologies available. The protocols are drawn from cognitive behavioural theory and utilise self-help processes to empower patients to take control of their own well-being needs.

You will learn the coaching and facilitation skills necessary to support this kind of self-help process and receive a full grounding in the theory underpinning these approaches. You will also learn about the service structure underpinning the IAPT initiative which you will be working in during your training.

The University of Essex has a robust academic tradition and achieves regular high levels of student satisfaction. We continue to work with students, service users and practice partners to continue to improve this established track record.

The School of Health and Social Care is proud to work closely with our Service User Reference Group (SURG). SURG is made up of service users, carers, and volunteers who generously share their first-hand experiences of health and social care. We work collaboratively with SURG to design our courses to ensure that we truly are putting the needs of patients and clients at the heart of what we do. SURG are involved as part of our course application processes and often form part of our interview panels. This helps us to be confident that we are selecting the right applicants for the course and their future careers. SURG members also support the delivery of our teaching sessions and research activity, which means you’ll benefit from an insight into their lived experiences of living with a diagnosis, health condition, or circumstance. You’ll find that not only does your clinical knowledge expand, but your empathy, compassion and ability to advocate develops also. You can find out more about SURG by reading their blog here.

Mandatory Vaccinations

As you may be aware, the UK government has now revoked legislation that requires all health and social care staff working in sites regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Whilst vaccination is not essential, we encourage our applicants and students to be fully vaccinated. Find out more about what this means for applicants to this course.