6 Steps to Becoming a Physician-Psychotherapist

6 Steps to Becoming a Physician Psychotherapist Course

1. Make sure you know what you’re getting into and why; realistic expectations of the work, common pitfalls, working through your own edges, are you ready to change in the service of your patients, prioritize caring for yourself
2. Identify what you need to learn and unlearn; knowledge deficits, modality specific training, foundational knowledge fund, DSM, listening and formulating cases as a FP vs FP-Psychotherapist, practice management
3. Find mentorship, supervision and/or consultation
4. Learn with a voracious appetite; follow what you feel called to and inspired by, it’s about fit between the individual and the modality as well as the person behind the technique more so than the ‘right’ or ‘best’ modality
5. Integrate and Embody What You Learn; don’t just be a talking head, reading alone isn’t sufficient, application, discussion, synthesising, comparing and contrasting, articulating, etc.
6. Commit to Safe and Effective Therapeutic Use of Self: Physician, Heal Thyself; pursue your own therapy ideally in the modalities you seek to become proficient in (knowing it from the inside out); much of what ails you will show up in the consultation room and will present barriers to safe and effective psychotherapeutic practice