As part of the Diploma programme you will engage in regular practise either with your own volunteers or with fellow students in practise sessions run by the College.

Online Learners will need to complete a number of practicals during each stage of the Diploma. The feedback from these practicals should be sent to your coach and discussed during your coaching sessions.  You'll find a downloadable schedule for these exercises below.

Webcast Learners will complete the practicals within the training day with your fellow students and share feedback during the day, both 1-1 in your breakout rooms and as a wider discussion during exercise debriefs. You will also complete exercises during the College run practise sessions and collect / give feedback.

Although you won’t be discussing the feedback forms from the practise sessions with a coach, you should keep these forms as part of your evidence portfolio.

You may wish to keep a record of all your activity during the course.  We have created this spreadsheet for this purpose.

Purpose of Feedback

All students are required to engage in practise, reflection and feedback as this is an important part of your learning, and the only real way to integrate the theory with practical execution.

By engaging in practise you can experience a range of different responses to a particular exercise and take time to consider how effective you were, how you could improve, how you can adapt to different issues, scenarios and people and how to develop generally as a therapist. It is the only way to experience the creation and development of the therapeutic relationship which is fundamental to all therapy. It also helps us develop and apply a learning mindset to our work, allowing us to continually improve and learn.

By engaging in practise and taking time to reflect on what we have learned, what we could change or improve and how different people respond to us, we also develop confidence and self-efficacy in our practise.

As this is such an important part of your learning we have provided some examples of excellent and poor feedback forms. Please take time to review these and consider how you can develop your skills of giving and receiving feedback

The practise sessions are your opportunity to start to inhabit the role of therapist.

When joining a session make sure you have time to stay for the whole session.  The sessions are 2 hours which allows for both you and your partner to practise your chosen exercise and provide each other with feedback.

If you have both had adequate time to practise your exercise and provided feedback you can leave before the end of the session, just let your practise session tutor know.

Think about how you are presenting yourself in the session, how does your room look through Zoom?  Would it be helpful to blur your background or select one of the virtual rooms available in Zoom.  Have you made sure there will be no interuptions? Take this time to experiment with how you wish to be seen by your clients, particularly if you plan to work virtually.

Please read the practise session agreement below for guidance on how to approach these practise sessions.