We are delighted to launch our new coaching psychology supervision postgraduate certificate. The course is designed to help you acquire the knowledge and skills required to supervise in various professional contexts, such as coaching, mentoring, education, social work, nursing, medicine, business, law, youth work, community services or mental health services. It is aimed at coaches and professional with coaching training who wish to develop and enhance their continuing personal and professional development alongside their supervisory skills and practice.

For experienced coaches, becoming a trained coaching psychology supervisor is the next step in terms of professional development. As a coaching psychology supervisor, you will combine your professional knowledge and experience with a range of theories and skills to support the development of novice and trained coaches alike.

For other professionals, and as organisations start to recognise the value of supervision, it is increasingly expected that those who take on a supervisory role have a qualification. As is the case with coaching itself, there has been a rapid increase of coaching supervision accreditations of variable reliability. The School of Psychology at UEL offers an evidence-based approach grounded in the most up-to-date theories in the field.

This postgraduate certificate will help you to understand the purpose and principles of coaching psychology supervision and to make critical judgements on the application of various supervision models and techniques required for professional practice.  

We are in support of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion by our mode of delivery (i.e., monthly Friday evening and Saturday day block sessions), as this allows a broader range of working professionals to participate.  

This course is accredited by the European Mentoring Coaching Council (EMCC) with the Supervision Quality Award (under validation). If you are interested in becoming a coaching psychology supervisor and wish to learn more about training requirements, please contact us.

This course is designed to allow you to develop and demonstrate an understanding of both the art and science of coaching psychology supervision. It aims to support coaches and other professionals with supervisory responsibilities who wish to incorporate coaching psychology supervision into their career portfolio. The course provides the foundation for students wishing to apply the principles of coaching psychology supervision toward their existing or future professional practice in the domains of professional coaching and corporate, education, health, charity or community sectors.

You will learn the principles, the process and the structure of coaching supervision. You will critically review some of the main theories and concepts in coaching psychology supervision and develop and demonstrate skills which can be applied directly in peer supervision and in either one-to-one or group-based coaching supervision.

The full Postgraduate Certificate training comprises two core modules, either of which can also be taken independently as stand-alone short courses which are titled similarly to the modules.  

In the module ‘Understanding the Theory and Practice of Coaching Psychology Supervision’ (or in the similarly-titled short course whose content is equivalent), a strong emphasis will be placed on equipping you to critically reflect on the theoretical and research underpinnings of coaching psychology supervision. Having acquired an introduction to these matters, you will be encouraged to reflect on your own approaches toward supervision as you experience and practice a carefully curated array of skills and techniques associated with coaching supervision. The module will present a wide variety of coaching supervision techniques, approaches and experiments, including innovative arts-based creative tools.  

Whilst making various personal and professional discoveries, you will be introduced to the application of supervision by regularly participating in safe practice opportunities in threes – comprising a supervisor, supervisee and observer (or 'shadow supervisor') who will offer feedback – alongside group supervision with other participants in the course. As an option, you will regularly observe live group coaching supervision sessions, followed by a guided reflection with the supervisor.  

In the module ‘Evidence-Based Practice in Coaching Psychology Supervision: Personal and Professional Development’ (or in the similarly-titled short course whose content is equivalent), the emphasis is placed on applying in practice your critical reflections on your own approaches to supervision, with the opportunity to experience and practise new skills and techniques associated with coaching supervision.

Whilst putting into practice an array of personal and professional discoveries, you will increase your confidence in making a set of critical judgments on the application of evidence-based approaches to one-to-one and group supervision in different professional contexts. You will also become familiar and critically analyse the most recent research in coaching psychology supervision.  

You’ll be taught by a range of staff, many of whom run their own practices or work in practice, which ensures that the practice-led research which is disseminated in the learning environment, or actually takes place within it, is relevant to your industry and practice. It also means that skills-practice labs are well-positioned to take advantage of myriad professional networks which are associated with the staff team.  
Within each module there are theoretical elements and practise-based elements, with the intention that knowledge and skills are always introduced and developed in relation to professional practitioner settings and real-world applicability. Thus, both the notion of evidence-based practice and that of practice-based evidence are valued, with the sense that each informs the other and is inextricably linked to the requirements of your day-to-day personal, professional and/or vocational settings.  
 
When not attending timetabled lectures, seminars, skills-practice sessions and other activities, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-directed learning and study.  

These efforts will typically involve reading academic journal articles and texts, working on individual and group projects, undertaking various coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for the submission of your assessment portfolio.  

Your independent learning is supported throughout by a range of state-of-the-art facilities, including an array of online resources, the campus library and Moodle - our curated VLE platform which guides and shapes the scope and direction of your self-directed learning activities.  

Our academic support team provides help and assistance in a vast range of areas, including but not limited to support for those who live with seen and/or unseen disabilities.  
 
When you embark on your studies, we will introduce you to your Academic Advisor. This a member of staff who will provide you with academic guidance, typically be a support throughout the entirety of your time at the University, and show you how to make best use of the full array of assistance, support and resources available to you as a student.  

For each module (or similarly titled short course whose content is equivalent), you will typically devote in the region of 45 hours to timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars, skills-practice sessions and either individual or group tutorials. Contact hours may vary slightly.  

You should also plan on devoting in the region of 255 hours to self-directed independent study. Activities which are likely to be involved are self-directed reading and revising, portfolio assessment preparation, online and/or on campus skills-acquisition activities, peer study and groupwork, assimilation of formative feedback and reflection on summative feedback. Your individual requirements may vary slightly.  

Your individualised timetable is normally available to students within 48 hours of enrolment. This training is being offered in an ‘executive-style’ format (i.e., approximately monthly on Saturdays) in order to accommodate the needs of busy working professionals who would rather not take time off from their weekday commitments.    

To give you an indication of class sizes, this course is intended to attract up to 60 students per year. Lecture sizes are normally conducted in a large-group format, whereas various small-group activities such as skills-practice sessions, seminars and tutorials are broken up into smaller group in order to heighten the opportunity for meaningful peer feedback and the development of professional networks amongst your peers.   

Who will teach on this course

Dr Andrea Giraldez-Hayes 
Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh
Ana Nacif

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.