[Psychotherapeutic knowledge and skills: essential in working as a psychiatrist]

Psychotherapeutic skills are essential elements in the daily work of psychiatrists. This article aims to bring attention to the psychotherapeutic competences described in the new training program for psychiatrists in the Netherlands. To illustrate the competences, two clinical cases are presented in which the psychiatrist executes psychotherapeutic skills to be effective in diagnosis and treatment. With the help of these psychotherapeutic competences, the psychiatrist manages to tolerate and understand frequently occurring demands of complex psychiatric patients, is able to make sense of behavior and, if possible, is able to reflect on this with the patient with the aim to start effective psychotherapeutic interventions and make progression in treatment. Clinical psychiatric practice cannot be seen apart from psychotherapy, because without psychotherapeutic knowledge and skills, treatment will be ineffective and can cause stagnating treatments, ineffective treatment relationships, overdiagnosis, regression in the patient or polypharmacy.