Application closing dates:
28 January 2026, 12 noon
Application window for NHSE funded applicants from 1 February 2026.
For further details and to make an application, please visit The University of Oxford Graduate Admissions site.
Course Lead: Alison Croft
The Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a one-year course providing comprehensive training in the core competencies required to become a competent CBT therapist*. Oxford is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence in CBT research, practice and training. This programme has evolved from a course established more than 30 years ago and draws on an impressive body of local specialist knowledge and skill.
Students will first learn the core skills of CBT relevant to working with clients presenting with single and more common mental health problems. As the course progresses, they will go on to build on these foundations to develop skills for working with presentations which are characterised by issues associated with greater complexity, such as comorbidity, chronicity, or where systematic factors play a role in maintaining current problems.
*The course is designed to enable students to meet the minimum training standards for British Association of Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP) accreditation as a CBT psychotherapist. It is currently BABCP-accredited at Level 1 and is seeking Level 2 accreditation.
Programme Details
The course runs yearly from October to July. This begins with five days of teaching over the first two weeks and one day per week (Fridays) thereafter.
The majority of the teaching takes place online. There will be a 3-day in-person teaching block in Week One and approximately 2 further in-person teaching days per term. These will take place in Oxford and attendance is compulsory. Overseas applicants should check their eligibility for visas to travel to the UK to attend these teaching days.
Students receive two hours of small-group supervision weekly with a course supervisor, focusing on CBT skills development. In teaching sessions, emphasis is placed on observation of CBT in action and on experiential learning with participation in role-play and other practical exercises.
From the second term, students will need to continue to access training cases suitable for CBT interventions, but these can be more complex (e.g. with co-morbidity, longer duration or involving systemic issues, such as those likely to present in secondary care mental health settings).
Some of the teaching days on this course may be made available to a wider audience as publicly bookable workshops via the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre. All participants will be expected to have an appropriate level of competence to participate fully.
Clinical practice
Students are responsible for sourcing suitable adult training cases to enable them to complete the clinical practice elements and assessments for the course.
Students are also responsible for arranging regular CBT supervision for their training cases from a qualified CBT practitioner, as not all supervision needs can be met within the small group skills supervision provided by the course. Supervisors should hold Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist accreditation with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy.