Applied Psychosocial and Psychotherapy Studies

Applied psychosocial and psychotherapy studies is a discipline at the intersection of psychology, sociology, and therapeutic practice, examining how the inner life of the individual and the social forces that surround them interact to shape wellbeing, distress, and the possibilities for change. Psychotherapy studies introduces you to the major traditions of therapeutic theory and practice, including psychodynamic, humanistic, and integrative approaches, while the psychosocial frame situates individual experience within wider structures of inequality, power, culture, and community. The combination is rigorous and genuinely challenging, requiring you to think across disciplinary boundaries and to engage with difficult human realities.

At Goldsmiths, this three-year full-time programme benefits from the college's distinctive intellectual culture, which has always been particularly attentive to questions of identity, creativity, social inequality, and the relationship between the individual and the cultural. You will study theories of the self and subjectivity, attachment and development, group dynamics, psychosocial research methods, and the practice and ethics of therapeutic work, developing both theoretical understanding and a reflective awareness of yourself as a future practitioner. The applied dimension means you engage with real questions about how psychosocial knowledge can be used to support people in distress, in community settings, and in social policy contexts.

A typical entry tariff of 104 points makes the programme broadly accessible.

Graduates of psychosocial and psychotherapy studies programmes go on to further training in counselling, psychotherapy, social work, clinical psychology, community development, and youth work. The degree provides a strong foundation for professional training routes that require a recognised undergraduate grounding in psychological and therapeutic theory. Others move into research, policy, or roles in mental health charities, housing organisations, and public health bodies.

Postgraduate study in counselling psychology, social work, or community mental health is a common and natural next step.