Psychotherapy Training Programs

Various institutes offer psychotherapy training programs in the United States. The University of Washington offers psychiatry residents such training. The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP&P) offers another such program. The Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis' (ICP) psychotherapy training program takes a case-based approach. These programs are all of varying durations.

University of Washington

• The University of Washington's psychotherapy training program is geared to psychiatry residents at the university. The university considers such training to be essential for all psychiatry residents, whatever their ultimate career goals. The input provided during the training helps the residents move to a sophisticated understanding of psychotherapy approaches. The university imparts its training over a four-year period. In the fourth year, the training is elective. During this training, residents learn skills such as how to empathize with and interview seriously ill patients.

ICP&P

• ICP&P's three-year psychoanalytic psychotherapy training program provides input through seminars, conferences and personal psychotherapy. The program has an emphasis on contemporary psychoanalytic theories and their clinical applications. ICP&P provides input on topics such as the history of psychoanalysis. The program is open to qualified individuals who are interested in such training. Applicants are those who are in mental-health disciplines, as well as interested people from other fields. The application process considers the applicants' educational background as well as any supervised clinical experiences.

ICP

• ICP's 30-week psychotherapy training program stresses both the clinical process of psychotherapy as well as the theoretical input. This program accepts applications from licensed mental health professionals. During the course of the program, ICP presents about 15 clinical cases, and students consider the clinical possibilities of the cases. Each case highlights some aspect such as trauma or a life-stage crisis. The participants also take part in small group consultations that help them further develop their clinical skills.

Program Input

• These sorts of psychotherapy training programs typically offer input on various aspects of psychotherapy. The ICP&P program explores areas such as self-psychology, motivational systems theory, history of psychoanalysis and attachment theory. The University of Washington program provides input on aspects such as psychodynamic psychotherapy, dialectical behavior therapy and cognitive behavior therapy. The residents are also taught about the concepts behind different schools of psychotherapy, such as the psychodynamic approach, the psychoanalytic approach, the cognitive approach, the behavioral approach and the interpersonal approach.