Systemic Practice & Family Therapy

Enhancing your everyday practice: This highly evaluated Postgraduate Certificate supports professionals in different settings and roles (both child and adult) to understand the core concepts of contemporary systemic practice and utilise systemic skills and techniques to maximise the therapeutic benefit for individual service users or relationship groups in their everyday work.



Relationships matter! This one year programme is designed for multidisciplinary professionals working with individuals or relationship/family groups in a wide range of contexts – both child/family and adult services, in the statutory and voluntary sectors. Relevant settings include family support and child protection; children in care; fostering and adoption; mental health; substance use; justice; physical health and disability; elderly; and adult safeguarding. Systemic practice helps people in close relationships to better understand and support each other. It enables people to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on strengths, and work together to make useful changes in their relationships and their lives.



Teaching and Accreditation: All courses are taught by highly experienced practitioners. They are accredited by Queen’s, the Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice UK (AFT) and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC – PiP Specialist Award).



Strategic Alignment: Skills developed in this PG Certificate align with regional strategic developments and priorities including the Mental Health Strategy; ‘Signs of Safety’; ‘Think Family’; NI Framework for Integrated Therapeutic Care; and Trauma Informed Practice.



This one-year multidisciplinary Postgraduate Certificate is the entrance programme to all levels of systemic training at Queen’s.



There are three levels of systemic practice and family therapy training: PG Certificate (AFT accredited Foundation - Year 1), PG Diploma (AFT accredited Intermediate - Year 2) and MSc Systemic Psychotherapy (AFT accredited Qualifying level training - Years 3 and 4). Please see relevant webpages for further details.



Systemic practice and family therapy has been found to be effective across the life course in helping children, young people, adults, couples and families struggling with a broad range of difficulties and circumstances.



Systemic practitioners, and family and systemic psychotherapists work in many health and social care contexts across child and adult settings, including child and family support services, looked after children’s services, older people’s services, physical health and disability, substance use, justice and mental health services.



Please note that this course is not eligible for a Student route visa.

Core Modules

Introduction to Systemic Theory, Research and Practice (20 credits)

Systemic Practice Skills and their application to the work setting (20 credits)

Personal and Professional Development in Systemic Practice (20 credits)

Entrance requirements

Graduate

1.This is a multidisciplinary pathway with applications welcome from applicants with prior relevant professional training in a mental health or social care related discipline or equivalent as designated by the Association of Family Therapy (e.g. Social Work, Nursing, Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology). Normally one year's post qualification experience is required. Applicants who do not hold one of the designated relevant professional qualifications, but who would find a Foundation course useful to their work may be accepted in accordance with the AFT training standards. This is at the discretion of the Programme Director and will be decided in consultation with AFT course requirements. Additional information and a full CV will be required to demonstrate equivalence.



2. Applicants must have the opportunity to apply systemic ideas in a current practice context. Please note that this programme is only open to applicants who are working in suitable contexts within NI/UK/RoI.



3. All Social Work applicants from NI/UK must have a recognised social work qualification and have successfully completed the Assessed Year in Employment. Social work and social care applicants must be registered with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and should include their NISCC Social Care Registration Number in the Additional Information section of the application form.



4. Applicants should normally have a 2.2 Honours degree or above or equivalent recognised qualification. Equivalent qualifications include the Pre-2007 Post-Qualifying Award in Social Work. Where this is not met, applicants must show their ability to study at postgraduate level through evidence of previous postgraduate training or completion of a reflective practice assignment.



5. At least two references will be sought, one of whom must be the applicant’s current employer. At least one referee should be professionally qualified and be able to comment on the applicant’s current practice.



N.B. Please note there are different entrance requirements at each level of the suite of Systemic Practice and Family Therapy programmes at Queen’s. Should you be accepted onto the PG Certificate programme (Year 1 Foundation), this does not automatically guarantee entry to the PG Diploma programme (Year 2 Intermediate) or MSc Systemic Psychotherapy Qualifying level training. Further information may be sought to ensure eligibility.



International Students

Our country/region pages include information on entry requirements, tuition fees, scholarships, student profiles, upcoming events and contacts for your country/region at https://www.qub.ac.uk/Study/international-students/your-country/



English Language Requirements

Evidence of an IELTS* score of 7.0, with not less than 6.0 in any component, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University is required (*taken within the last 2 years).



International students wishing to apply to Queen's University Belfast (and for whom English is not their first language), must be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study or research. Non-EEA nationals must also satisfy UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) immigration requirements for English language for visa purposes.



For more information on English Language requirements for EEA and non-EEA nationals see: www.qub.ac.uk/EnglishLanguageReqs.



If you need to improve your English language skills before you enter this degree programme, INTO Queen's University Belfast offers a range of English language courses. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability for admission to this degree.

Closing date for applications: Friday 31st July 2026 at 4pm



Late applications may be considered.



Applicants are advised to apply as early as possible. In the event that any programme receives a high number of applications, the University reserves the right to close the application portal prior to the deadline stated on course finder. Notifications to this effect will appear on the application portal against the programme application page.

1 year (Part Time).

Entry Year: Academic Year 2026/27

Career Prospects

Introduction

This PG Certificate programme is the entrance programme to all levels of systemic training. It provides knowledge and practice skills which are highly valued in both child and adult services across health, justice and social care.



Systemic practitioners, and family and systemic psychotherapists work in many health and social care contexts across child and adult settings including child and family support services, looked after children's services, older people's services, physical health and disability, substance use, justice and mental health services.



The course is taught by highly experienced Family and Systemic Psychotherapists who work in different settings, thus bringing a great richness of practice experience to the teaching team.