The Acquisition of Psychotherapy Skills: a Learning Model and Some Guidelines for Instructors

Abstract

The psychodynamic pattern of acquiring psychotherapy skills can be viewed as one that exhibits regressive periods which tend towards one of two poles, ‘moving towards’, and ‘distancing’. A major block to learning, especially the learning of individual psychotherapy, is the resident's difficulties in the area of self-awareness. Pointing out psychodynamic patterns to him is essential, both to make him cognizant of the existence of the unconscious in the fullest sense and to allow the learning process to progress, possibly in a more adaptive way. Individual psychotherapy supervision is a major vehicle for such learning. Some guidelines for psychotherapy supervision are presented.