A training psychotherapy elective for military psychiatry residents

A Training Psychotherapy Elective (TPE) was developed to meet the special requirements of military medical education; but the model is generally applicable to all psychiatry training programs. It aims to demonstrate the technique of individual medical psychotherapy by offering residents and fellows an experience of this procedure in a patient role. It affords trainees an opportunity to address healthy curiosities about their mental functioning without the requirement of endorsing a complaint related to a mental disorder. Training psychotherapy follows the technical model that residents learn in their outpatient rotations. Transparent interventions allow trainees both to experience the impact of clarification and interpretation and to see how the therapist derived them from their associations. This facilitates the application of these interventions to work with patients. It also affords trainees an emotionally sheltered environment in which to explore attitudes and concerns associated with their service in military operations, fostering readiness for such assignments.