About

AFT, the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice, is a registered charity working to benefit the public by promoting effective family therapy and systemic services and high standards of professional trainings and practice.

AFT supports Family and Systemic Psychotherapy training, and practice standards, promotes research, hosts conferences and workshops, and provide a wealth of information and resources for students, professionals and members of the public.

AFT is a professional membership organisation. Membership is open to anyone from the UK or overseas interested in the field, developing their skills, and gaining understanding of effective family-inclusive practice, at what ever stage in their career, as well as to fully qualified family and systemic psychotherapists.

- AFT accredits professional family and systemic training courses run by external training providers and universities.

- AFT supports AFT members, who are fully qualified family and systemic psychotherapists, with application to the UKCP register and maintaining the requirements

https://www.aft.org.uk/page/ContactUs

AFT does not run Family and Systemic training courses, however all courses that AFT accredit are listed on the AFT website.

-Routes to Training (https://www.aft.org.uk/page/routestoqualification)
-Accredited Courses (https://www.aft.org.uk/page/Accreditedtrainingcourses)

The training route for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy is a four year Master level programme split into three stages – Foundation (year1), Intermediate (year 2) and Qualifying (year 3&4).
Only after completion of the full masters training is someone awarded the professional qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy from the training institute. This then provides eligibility for those qualified, to apply via AFT (or IFT) for professionally register with UKCP.

Enrty Requirements:
The training is designed on the basis that entrants have already completed training in a relevant health and social care profession and hold a relevant Prior Professional Qualification (PPQ) e.g. be a Psychiatrist, Clinical Psychologist, social worker, mental health nurse etc.

Applicants who do not hold a relevant PPQ may apply via a training provider’s Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) route to demonstrate the necessary prior knowledge and skills directly to the institute they wish to train with.

Many Foundation level courses welcome students to complete the first year, as a way of finding out about the systemic approach and the training in detail. Many institutes and universities have open days where you can find out more.