Where To Train As A Therapist? 6 Recommendations To Know How To Choose
The learning path required to engage in psychotherapy is not always clear. Depending on the place of residence of each one, the regulation in the practice of Psychology in each country, and the motivations and needs that move us, we must find a way to enter this professional field by going to the training centers that more match what we want to do.
It is not just a matter of studying hard and well; In addition, we must find a training institution that is up to par in terms of what we require to become the psychologists we want to become. So… where to train as a therapist?
In this article we will see several tips about how to choose the centers in which to train to be psychotherapists, and the way in which we can estimate their quality.
Where to train as a therapist: how to choose where to study
Training to practice psychotherapy is not easy, especially taking into account the wide variety of knowledge and skills needed to work in this field of health. The type of training required to intervene psychologically in patients it must cover broad facets of human behavior and the mental processes involved in them, something that can hardly be achieved without the guidance and supervision of experts on the subject.
On the other hand, it is precisely the fact that there is a wide range of knowledge to be learned that makes many students feel lost when trying to progress in their educational career. After all, Among so many thematic areas it is difficult to find a line to follow to sequentially internalize materials that help us understand the functioning of psychological therapy, establishing new knowledge about those that we have already made our own.
Fortunately, and although in order to dedicate yourself to psychotherapy it is necessary to adapt the line of studies to the unique interests that define us as individuals, in general terms it is possible to find a series of criteria that can guide us when making decisions about where to go. study to become a psychologist. These fundamental criteria are the following.
1. Check the clarity of the offered agenda
If a training center does not offer a summary of the contents that will be covered throughout its courses, that should be a first warning sign. Transparency regarding the type of subjects that will be taught in classes It is something fundamental, and on which we must rely to know if this option adapts to our needs.
2. Make sure they offer quality internships
It is essential not to limit yourself to learning in terms of theory. In something as changing and flexible as human behavior, much more is needed than the knowledge obtained in books: we must get used to carrying out practical cases that test our skills in real time, in contexts that are as realistic as possible and more similar to the daily professional life that the training context allows.
There are centers that offer internships by referring students to other organizations where students can practice psychological intervention cases on patients. However, in this aspect, centers that allow internships without having to go to another center are even better; that is, with patients from the same place where they are constantly learning. Thus, both theory and practice are better integrated and a better correspondence is possible between what is explained and discussed in classrooms and what is seen in cases treated with real patients.
An example of this is the Master’s Degree in Integrative Psychotherapy of the Mensalus Institute (Barcelona), which offers both internships with patients from the center itself and observation classes in which psychotherapists attend to these people who come for consultation, with the students located behind a glass that hides them (despite that the patient knows he is being observed).
In these cases, several types of learning are combined that have to do with real-time problem solving: one of them placing the students in the center of the action, and the other leaving them a space to ask questions about what they are seeing.
3. Pay attention to the paradigms from which you start
The training centers you go to must start from a clearly scientific conception of what psychology is. That means it is necessary that base their teachings on well-constructed research with the aim of creating knowledge applicable to many contexts and proving falsifiable facts that are easy to test from other research teams.
In this sense, it is important that the bulk of the content to be learned is based on the cognitive-behavioral paradigm, which is the one with the most evidence of effectiveness.
It is very common that throughout a course incidents, doubts or small problems appear related to the availability to attend a class, with the scoring system or with the need to contact teachers to answer important questions.
Therefore, it is key to find out about the type of orientation to students that the centers offer, especially through the Internet
5. Check your schedule compatibility options
Especially in postgraduate studies, it is good to consider the possibility of taking these studies without schedules overlapping with other things, in a way that adapts to the rest of the responsibilities that students of this profile usually have. For example, if to attend class you have to go to class at very separate times, investing almost the entire day in spending three hours in class, that will possibly wear us out and keep us away from solving other needs.
6. Pay attention to the type of therapy in which you train
Don’t get carried away by what others do: if you are interested in a specific type of therapeutic intervention, don’t be afraid to choose a center where more emphasis is placed on that kind of training Of course, consider the risks of only learning about one type of therapy, taking into account the context in which you plan to work and the amount of competition there will be. The ideal is not to lose a general perspective of psychotherapy applied to a certain variety of health disorders, even if the focus is on two or three specific problems.
