Thinking Outside of Outpatient: Underutilized Settings for Psychotherapy Education

Although psychiatry residents are expected to achieve competency in conducting psychotherapy during their training, it is unclear how psychotherapy teaching is integrated across diverse clinical settings.

Between January and March 2015, 177 psychiatry residency training directors were sent a survey asking about psychotherapy training practices in their programs, as well as perceived barriers to psychotherapy teaching.

Eighty-two training directors (44%) completed the survey. While 95% indicated that psychotherapy was a formal learning objective for outpatient clinic rotations, fifty percent or fewer noted psychotherapy was a learning objective in other settings. Most program directors would like to see psychotherapy training included (particularly supportive psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy) on inpatient (82%) and consultation-liaison settings (57%). The most common barriers identified to teaching psychotherapy in these settings were time and perceived inadequate staff training and interest.

Non-outpatient rotations appear to be an underutilized setting for psychotherapy teaching.