‘That psychotherapy and counselling trainings should be based in universities’

Abstract

Psychoanalytic institutes, operating as they do normally outside universities, have been criticized as being like religious institutions, with the emphasis on a narrow set of beliefs more than on critical examination of ideas, and with considerable power invested in the trainers and supervisors. Such criticism may also apply to other schools of psychotherapy. While universities have their own difficulties as institutions, including bureaucracy and even similar standardization of theories in particular disciplines, they can also represent a challenging milieu for psychotherapy and counselling education, for accountability in selection, teaching and assessment, for student participation, and for a broader critique of ideas. The difference between education and training is noted and a two-part assessment, academic and practical, is briefly considered.

Keywords:

• assessment
• cross-fertilization of ideas
• education
• psychoanalytic institutes
• theoretical models
• training