The Course commences in late September and is accredited as a foundation level course by the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (AFT). Participants must be working with families or couples within the context of their profession to be eligible to apply. They should also have an appropriate professional training or equivalent, such as social work, nursing, psychiatry or clinical psychology. The course on its own does not aim to train participants to become therapists, but to enable them to incorporate systemic ideas and techniques into the participants’ professional practice. It forms the foundation year of the Institute’s four year clinical training programme.