Juan Mertel Morillo Postgraduate Diploma CBT for Anxiety and Depression

Most of my highlights were based on role-play exercises such as walking through the campus with my hands covered in jam pretending I had OCD, to understand how it felt.

Why did you choose to carry out your postgraduate study at the University of Southampton?

The Trust that I work for has had a positive relationship with the University. In 2014 I did a Certificate in CBT in Southampton University and I knew many of the lectures as well as the teaching system.

What is the academic support like?

The lecturers are great and they come from different background (psychology and nurses) which gives a combination of approaches that it is great when doing my first steps as a therapist. Most of my supervisors went the extra mile to help me with my first cases. Most of the advice given by them will be always remembered and mark the way I work.

What are you enjoying the most about your course?

My supervision groups and the opportunity to put “fresh material” learnt on the same day in practice. Most of my highlights were based on role-play exercises such as walking through the campus with my hands covered in jam pretending I had OCD, to understand how it felt.

What are you hoping to do after completing your postgraduate study?

Upon finishing the course there is a tendency for Trainees to stay in the NHS Trust that funded the course. I had the opportunity to stay working for Steps to Wellbeing to consolidate and continue expanding my experience with clients that can be more complex.

The course also opened my eyes and inspired me to do some research in some areas that need further investigation to make sure that we are still delivering evidence based treatments. So hopefully I’ll be on the research path soon.

I would also like to get involved in the development of the programme to share how my experience has been and continue making this a centre of excellence to study CBT.