Applied Clinical Psychology, MSc

The MSc Applied Clinical Psychology is intended to provide a stepping stone towards a rewarding potential career in clinical psychology or mental health and has been designed in collaboration with the Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology at CCCU.

The course includes specialised teaching from qualified clinical practitioners and researchers from NHS mental health services and the Salomons Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

This enables you to gain additional knowledge regarding clinical service settings and the role of clinical psychologists, as well as giving you an opportunity to have discussions with clinicians regarding their practice.

You will be fully supported when you join the university to help your transition to higher education go as smooth as possible and to achieve your goals, and you will be allocated a Personal Academic Tutor who will support you throughout your academic studies.

They will also signpost you to wider support available from the university including the Learning Skills Hub, Wellbeing support, and the Careers and Enterprise Hub for any additional help you may need.

There will also be further opportunities for personal and professional development during personal and academic development weeks. We may also have some social trips (e.g. an escape room game or a visit to the Freud museum in London)!

Your First Day

Our course welcome day will take place on campus on Friday 18 September, and we are very much looking forward to meeting you.

This day is an important part of beginning your journey with us. You will receive a clear and friendly introduction to the aims of the course, explore each of the modules you will study, and gain a helpful overview of the assessments you will complete throughout your time with us. It is also a great opportunity to meet other students on your course and start building your community.

Key members of the teaching team will be present, including the staff who will potentially support you with your research project. You will have the chance to speak with them and ask any questions you may have.

Throughout the welcome day, you will also hear from several university teams who are here to support you. This includes Sport & Active Health, Learning & Development, and Graduate Futures. Their presentations will introduce the support available to help you succeed academically, prepare for life alongside and after university, and enjoy a rich and fulfilling student experience.

We will also introduce (or reintroduce) the Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) role. Your PAT will be an important point of contact throughout your course. Every student is assigned a PAT, and you will receive your PAT details during the welcome day.

Before you commence the course, you will be invited to take part in the CCCU Welcome Week Activities and our Psychology Postgraduate Courses Induction Day.

This is an excellent opportunity to meet some of the teaching staff and other students on the course in a relaxed environment, to begin to develop a sense of belonging and community, and to learn about the teaching content, timetable, assessments, and resources and support available.

You can view the timetable for your course Welcome Week in the Welcome & Induction box at the top of this page.

How is the course delivered?

This course is delivered over 3 Trimesters.

A main priority for us is for you to feel engaged in teaching, therefore interactive learning is embedded into the sessions (e.g., discussions, reflective activities, debates, groupwork etc.). It is not just going to be us reading off powerpoints!

We also think diversity and inclusion is really important and so the curriculum includes delivery of teaching beyond Western frameworks. We will encourage you to question the history and context of knowledge, explore debates about diagnostic systems, consider the psychological and sociocultural, as well as biological, factors that may contribute to mental health issues, and to reflect on your own positionality, values, and beliefs.

Full-time students will be required to engage with teaching sessions 2 days per week. It is planned that all teaching will take place on Thursdays and Fridays (for full-time students). However, please note that the days of teaching are subject to change.

You will be notified in advance if such changes occur. Outside of teaching days, you are recommended to keep an additional 2-3 days dedicated to course related activities, such as: self-directed reading, completing your assessments and building upon your clinical psychological knowledge.

Blackboard

You will have full access to our virtual learning environment, Blackboard. Each module has its own dedicated space where you will find essential information, including module aims, assessment details, and weekly session content. Preparatory materials will be released before each lecture to help you engage confidently with the upcoming session, and lecture slides will also be made available beforehand.

Additional consolidation resources and further reading will also be provided to support your learning. We recognise that students benefit from a variety of learning resources. Therefore, preparation, sessions and consolidation work will typically incorporate a blend of materials, including academic readings, video content, and podcasts.

Please see below some recommended textbooks that you may find helpful in preparing for the course. They are not mandatory but are a good reference point to start with.

Core Texts

• Cromby, J., Harper, D. & Reavey, P. (2013). Psychology, mental health and distress. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Davey, G. (2021). Psychopathology: Research, assessment and treatment in clinical psychology (3rd Ed.). Wiley.

Additional reading

• Guidelines and policies | BPS
• Carr, A. & McNulty, M. (2016). The handbook of adult clinical Psychology: An evidence-based approach. (2nd Ed.). Routledge.
• Carr, A. (2016). The handbook of child and adolescent clinical psychology: A contextual approach. (3rd Ed.). Routledge.
• HCPC Standards of Conduct, performance and ethics
• Llewelyn, S. & Murphy, D. (2014). What is clinical psychology? Oxford University Press.
• Critical Psychiatry Network – Scepsis and science, reflection and humanism

Research Modules and Dissertation

• Barker, C., Pistrang, N. & Elliott, R. (2016). Research methods in clinical psychology (3rd Ed.). Wiley.
• Field, A. (2024). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (6th ed.). Sage Publications
• Sullivan, C., & Forrester, M.A. (2018). Doing qualitative research in psychology. (2nd Ed.) Sage Publications.

Study Skills

• Katz, L. (2018). Palgrave study skills. Critical thinking and persuasive writing for postgraduates. Palgrave.
• Smyth, T.R. (2004). Palgrave study skills. The principles of writing in psychology. Palgrave.

What else can I do?

Why not follow the BPS on social media and read through their website Homepage | BPS. There is a lot of helpful information, training, videos etc. that you may find helpful to prepare you for the course.

You can also keep up-to-date with psychology via our social media channels:

• Instagram
• Facebook

There's lots of evidence that being in nature helps wellbeing; why not go for a walk and listen to a podcast!

• BBC Radio 4 - All in the Mind - Downloads
• Podcasts - Mad in the UK