UK Mindfulness Centres Collaboration Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher Training for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Services

MBCT in IAPT Training Programme

With our partners at Exeter University, Nottingham Mindfulness Centre and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, we run an MBCT in IAPT training programme.

Applications are now open for 2023

Please note that each trainee must fill out a trainee application form and trainee application forms from the same service must be accompanied by a service application form completed by the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service lead. The deadline for the 2023 cohort has now passed. Watch this space to learn about the deadine for the next programme starting in 2024.

The training is scheduled to be delivered in three sites across England through a mixture of face to face and online sessions. The teaching and supervision are funded by Health Education England and are provided free of charge to IAPT staff. Staff on successful completion of the training, will be able to deliver this NICE approved evidence-based therapeutic approach for people with recurrent depression within IAPT services.

This training is for High Intensity cognitive behaviour therapists with at least one year’s post-qualification experience, working in IAPT Services. We are enriched by people's diversity on our training and would particularly welcome applications from people from a BAME background. IAPT services are invited to apply to a training course in their assigned locality. IAPT services should work with interested staff to identify their preferred applicants for the training.

For more information, please see the published evaluation of the training here:

Marx, R., Menzies, P. Symon, R. Turner, S. & Pound, A. (2023). MBCT training in IAPT: the experience of the first UK government funded teacher training programme. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 16, e8, DOI.

Further information on the training content can be found in the training information and curriculum below, or by contacting the training site lead for your area:

Dr Paul Bernard (paul.bernard@nhs.net) for the North (North East and North West, including Cheshire, Yorkshire and Humberside and further north).

Dr Tim Sweeney (tim.sweeney@nottshc.nhs.uk) for Central England (Midlands and East of England, including Stafford, Derby, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire and as far south as, and including, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Essex, East Anglia and Hertfordshire).

Dr Nicole Jamani (N.Jamani@exeter.ac.uk) for the South and South-West (including Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and further south-west).

Dr Robert Marx (robert.marx@spft.nhs.uk) for the South (covering Greater London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Isle of Wight, the Thames Valley, including Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, Hampshire and the south-west).