How long does it take to become a CBT therapist? 3 routes to qualification

Gemma Robinson
4 days ago
5 min read

Here we explore the various training routes to practice as a cognitive behavioural therapist and how long they take.

What is a cognitive behavioural therapist and should I become one?

CBT therapists are crucial in healthcare, as this therapy technique is the leading method used in the UK and many other countries for treating mental health problems. It can be used to treat a huge variety of disorders and issues, and to list a few, this includes depression, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, eating disorders, and PTSD. A CBT therapist is a trained professional who carries out this therapy with their patients.

The role of a CBT therapist can vary depending on multiple factors such as the organisation they work for and whether they deliver group or individual CBT. If they work in a hospital or a clinic for the NHS for example, their working style will be different to someone who is a CBT therapist for a private company. Working in a hospital or clinic will be more time restricted and patients will be assigned to you. However working privately means that you will have more freedom over how much time you spend with patients, and which patients you take on board. If you work privately, you may only choose to provide CBT for specific conditions. It is also noting that working for the NHS will usually provide you with a good pension scheme and holiday pay however if you work privately, you need to set up your own pension, and you often won’t get paid if you are not working.

As a CBT therapist, you must be able to work with lots of different mental health problems and disorders with flexibility. You will be applying the same CBT principles to very different patients with very different needs – therefore you will learn how to adapt your theory and therapy techniques to each person, uniquely.

If you are unsure if a CBT specific career is the one for you, try answering these questions:

Do you want to treat specific types of mental health problems?
Do you enjoy applying psychological theory to alleviating distress?
Do you enjoy prompting change?
Is seeing progress something that is important to you?
Do you enjoy being set/setting specific targets for your work?

If the answer to all of these questions is yes, you might consider becoming a CBT therapist. It is essential that CBT therapists have the correct outlook on their work and their patients, so with your answers, you are likely to be suitable for the role.

Cognitive behavioural therapy qualifications

There are different ways you can go about becoming a CBT therapist, depending on your education and career. Here are a few options:

You could get a master’s degree in CBT if you already are in a core profession (like a nurse or occupational therapist).
You could get a Level 5 diploma in CBT; however you need to already have obtained the previous levels of diploma to reach level 5, including the Level 4 Diploma, to be registered as a counsellor/psychotherapist or equivalent.
If you are a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP), you can apply to a High-Intensity CBT therapist course. You will need at least 2 years of PWP experience to do this.

These are not the only ways to become a CBT therapist; however these are a few achievable options depending on your current status. If you don’t fit into any of these, there will be alternative options, you just need to do a bit of research into what path will be the most efficient for you. We will go into more details of these routes below.

Cognitive behavioural therapy training programs

A common query of going into a career like CBT therapy is how long does it actually take to become qualified? We will be going through the example routes we discussed in the previous section and give an idea what they each involve. Hopefully this will give you more information on the logistics of the route you will end up taking if you chose to pursue CBT.

Getting a master’s degree

As we mentioned previously, in order to get into a CBT related master’s degree course before going straight into CBT as a career you will have to have a bachelor’s degree in a related field and then either have to have experience in a core profession, or a have a built up KSA portfolio. As a core profession, you will have good experience of working with mental health. KSA stands for ‘knowledge, skills, and attitudes’ which is basically your personal portfolio where you showcase evidence of you working in areas related to CBT. It shows that you have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to prove your competence to be a CBT therapist without having worked in a core profession. It is important to be aware that not every university that you will look at applying to a master’s degree in CBT will accept a KSA portfolio from an applicant, but there are universities that do! The master’s degree itself will take from 1 to 3 years, depending on your situation, and whether you complete it full-time or part-time.

Level 5 Diploma in CBT

Level 5 diplomas in CBT are usually for counsellors who wish to use CBT in their services. It doesn’t train you to be a CBT therapist in its own right. However, it will teach you a vast amount on CBT, how to conduct it, and how to approach clients’ problems. Because it is a level 5 diploma, you will need to already have levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 in somewhat of a related field. You may also need to have experience seeing patients: if you are a counsellor already, you will have this. General counsellors have already completed level 4. The level 5 will take you around a year. It is ideal for those already in practice who want to add specialist CBT skills to their toolkit.

High-intensity CBT therapist course from being a PWP

As we mentioned previously, you will need at least 2 years of PWP experience to begin this. This high-intensity course will take you 1 year with a mix of learning and working. You will complete 200 clinical hours on this course and will likely have a supervisor you will meet with regularly. This course will award you with the level 7 diploma and you will become a qualified high-intensity CBT therapist.

We hope this blog on how to become a CBT therapist was helpful! We went through: what a CBT therapist is and what they do, possible routes to become one, and the logistics and requirements of these routes. Depending on your situation, your route to becoming a CBT therapist might be very different to the ones we have mentioned here. Just do a bit of research of how you can get into CBT using what you have achieved so far, and that can give you a clear direction of how to get there.