Our History
Originally located in a large house in the Sherwood area of Nottingham, we began our first ever training group in Gestalt Psychotherapy. It soon became clear that more than one group was needed and our second group began in 1989. In 1992 we moved premises to Thiskney House, still our headquarters and one of our training buildings in the City Centre.
Demand for training in Gestalt Psychotherapy continued to increase and the following year saw the start of our third group. Demand for other approaches was also increasing. We began other programmes, with Person-Centred Counselling (1990), Supervision (1991), and Integrative Psychotherapy (1992). We have continued to recruit to these programmes year by year and we currently have around 200 students.
Meanwhile the world of counselling and psychotherapy was rapidly changing. Accreditation and national recognition was becoming increasingly important to graduates and potential trainees looking for courses in this field.
In 1993 we became an accrediting member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, and were thus able to offer our Psychotherapy graduates UKCP registered status. In 1994 our Counselling course gained accredited status with the British Association for Counselling (now the BACP), and in 1995 SPTI first achieved validation. We were then able to offer Master’s Programmes as well as clinical professional qualifications.
This was an intense period of growth both in terms of size and in what we as a training institute could offer to our trainees. Many connections were made with others in the field on both national and international levels. The next period saw us concentrating on developing what we had already achieved.
In 2001 we entered a new period of expansion with the validation of the Humanistic Person-Centred Programme. We then had four Master’s courses each leading to UKCP registration and one accredited course with the BACP.
More recently we have developed our Foundation Access course designed for those who wish to move onto the Masters programme but who need to enhance their study experience in preparation for this. We are now able to offer our Supervision programme as MSc as well as continuing to run our BSc, and have also developed a new MSc in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy. Our MSc in Person-Centred Psychotherapy has, along with all our MSc’s, been thoroughly updated to take account of the changes in the field of psychotherapy and counselling and within the individual approaches. Our BSc (Hons) in Counselling & Psychotherapy has also been thoroughly revised and updated and is now a BACP accredited course. All our MSc and a BSc programmes are validated by and offered in partnership with Coventry University.
We also continue to extend our connections in Europe and beyond using our reputation for innovative research in psychotherapy and our ability to offer Master’s degrees to increase our number of international students.
We are proud and appreciative of the way our historical developments have led to us being here, now, able to provide a major contribution to the field of psychotherapy and counselling and we look forward to the future!