Please talk to me about CBT training

[Shallysally]

So I’m mid 50’s, social worker in an adults mental health and learning disability team.
I’m pretty burnt out, had a recent spell of sick leave due to this.
I know I need a change, but want to use my skills while ditching the intense work load and all that comes with it.

I like learning about people and how their minds work, and helping them, where needed, to change their mindsets.

My local mental health service advertise for trainee, band 6, CBT students around August each year.

My concern is it’s over 20 years since I did any real study.
How intense is the course academic work wise please?

I did the children and young people high intensity CBT course but I would imagine they are similar. I will not lie it was tough going and I felt like I lived and breathed the course for 12 months. Off the top of my head I had to do an exam, 3 x 4000 word case reports and a portfolio containing supervision notes, reflections, work based tasks. I also had to submit and pass 3 tapes of my work with young people. I was at Uni 2 days a week which was 1.5 days teaching and half a day supervision.

Although it was hard it was the best thing Ive ever done!

I transitioned from social work to CBT: it was hard work but the core professionals seemed to find the learning curve easier than the pwps on the course, perhaps because they were more accustomed to extreme scenarios/general chaos so IAPT seemed fairly tame in comparison. There's lots of support for the academic side and tbh I found it helpful to just aim to pass rather than to excel - it took the pressure off and absolutely no one cares about your grade once qualified. Best of luck!