What the 2026/27 CPD Calendar Tells Us About Where Irish Practice Is Heading

Every year, PCI College builds its Continuing Professional Development calendar around one question: what do practising counsellors and psychotherapists actually need to be ready for right now? Looking at the courses scheduled for the 2026/27 academic year, a clear picture emerges: Irish mental health services are under mounting pressure in a handful of very specific areas, and the CPD calendar has been shaped directly around them. 

Here’s what the data says about why this year’s programme looks the way it does, and where to find the full listing. 

Young people are presenting more complex, more urgent presentations 

Three courses on this year’s calendar respond directly to what’s happening with children and adolescents: Working with Adolescents, C&A Suicide and Self-Harm, and Disordered Eating. 

The numbers explain why. HSE figures show referrals for eating disorder treatment rose by roughly a third in 2024, followed by a further 13% increase in the number of people starting treatment in 2025, with 78% of those assessed under the age of 25 and a third of assessments involving teenagers aged 15 to 17. Separately, HRB research found that hospital admissions for eating disorders among under-18s more than doubled between 2018 and 2022, and eating disorders have now been the most common diagnosis among child and adolescent psychiatric admissions for two years running. 

The picture around self-harm and suicide risk is just as stark. CAMHS waiting lists stood at over 4,000 children nationally at the end of 2025, with more than 500 waiting over a year for an appointment, and reporting has repeatedly flagged that some children presenting with suicidal ideation or self-harm are among those not accepted for treatment. For practitioners in private practice, schools, and community services, this means young people in genuine crisis are increasingly likely to land in your caseload without having been seen by specialist services first. Practical, current training in this area isn’t optional CPD anymore; it’s frontline preparedness. 

Neurodiversity-affirming practice has moved from niche to necessary 

Neurodiversity’s place on the 2026/27 calendar reflects a similar shift. Waiting times for HSE neurodevelopmental assessments in children commonly run 19 to 30 months, and adults face an even harder road: the HSE does not provide adult autism assessment at all, pushing that work entirely into the private sector. An estimated one in ten Irish adults identifies as neurodivergent, yet only around half have a formal diagnosis. In practice, that means a growing share of clients arriving in therapy, whether formally diagnosed, self-identified, or undiagnosed, need a therapist who can recognise and adapt to neurodivergent presentations rather than pathologise them. 

Relational and systemic work is back in demand 

Attachment Theory, Relationship and Mental Health, and the ProCert pathways in Couples Counselling and Family Therapy point to a second trend: growing demand for practitioners who can work with relationships and family systems, not just individuals. As waiting lists lengthen across statutory mental health and eating disorder services, families are increasingly the ones holding the load in the interim, and increasingly seeking support together, not just individually. 

Depth and specialisation across the rest of the calendar 

The remainder of the 2026/27 line-up, CBT for OCD and Health Anxiety, Mindfulness Based CBT, Motivational Interviewing, CBT for Addiction, Understanding Trauma, Introduction to Schema Therapy, GSRD, Loss & Grief, Dreams, Childfree, Clinical Supervision, Group Facilitation, and Suicide & Self-Harm ProCert, rounds out a calendar built for practitioners who want genuine depth in specific modalities and client populations, not just generalist refreshers. Clinical Supervision and Group Facilitation, in particular, reflect the reality that as caseloads grow more complex, practitioners need structured spaces to process that complexity themselves. 

The full 2026/27 CPD catalogue 

Every course above is listed with dates and booking details on the PCI College Professional Development page: www.pcicollege.ie/courses/professional-development 

Whether you’re building out a specialism, meeting accreditation requirements, or simply keeping pace with the presentations you’re seeing more of in the therapy room, this year’s calendar has been built around where the need actually is. 

Sources 

• Twenty new beds to tackle 33% rise in eating disorder referrals, The Irish Times 

• Rise in number of patients being treated for eating disorders, Irish Medical Times 

• New regional centres to expand inpatient care for adults with eating disorders, Medical Independent 

• Trends and description of inpatient admissions for eating disorders among children and adolescents in Ireland: 2018–2022, Journal of Eating Disorders 

• Statistics, Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland 

• Access to CAMHS in Ireland: Major Concern Highlighted, Lavelle Partners 

• State is ‘utterly failing vulnerable children’ on Camhs wait lists, Irish Examiner 

• A quarter of children on Camhs list are waiting more than nine months, The Irish Times 

• Waiting Times and Influencing Factors in Children and Adults Undergoing Assessment for Autism, ADHD, and Other Neurodevelopmental Differences, Autism Research, via PubMed 

• Divergent.ie, Ireland’s Neurodiversity Clinic Finder & Assessment Guide, Divergent.ie