ACKNOWLEDGING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS: POSSIBLE WAYS OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION

Abstract

We present an example of current legal regulation of education and training programs for psychotherapists on the example of legislation in Switzerland. It dwells upon the criteria for training professional psychotherapists. The paper also discusses the procedure for admission into the workforce (accreditation) and describes the experience of the first stage of admission in Switzerland. The Swiss example shows that the provisions for applying the law to the admission procedure need to be clarified in order to be able to distinguish, as required by the law, scientifically based psychotherapeutic approaches and methods from those which are not, or not yet, scientifically or evidence-based. Furthermore, we touch upon the issue of distinguishing between psychological counseling and psychotherapy and describe a proposed solution to this problem, as practiced in the Netherlands. In addition, we present the recently (September 2020) enacted reform of the Psychotherapy Act of Germany. This reform concerns education and advanced qualification training as well as the accreditation of psychotherapists.

Keywords

• legislation in psychotherapy
• education in psychotherapy
• advanced qualification training
• criteria for psychotherapeutic approaches
• psychotherapeutic methods
• counseling
• evidence-based psychotherapy