Didactics

[dlm13cwru]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Is it common to have social workers and psychologist teaching didactics focusing on psychotherapy and interventions? At my program there are times when there are more social workers and psychologists teaching rather than psychiatrist attendings. Many times we also have social worker and psychology interns in our classes as well. They do a fair job at teaching, however I don't think they realize that we are not going to have 2 hour sessions once we start practicing that a therapist has in order to provide certain interventions. We also are not receiving as much education on psychopharm and biological/neuro psychiatry. We currently have 5 hours of didactics a week and only one hour is being taught by an attending psychiatrist.

 

[Doc Samson]

Some of my favorite psychotherapy supervisors were PsyD and PhD psychologists and they are certainly well qualified to teach psychotherapy - that said, I think 80% of didactics from non-physicians is on the heavy side.

 

[erg923]

Is it common to have social workers and psychologist teaching didactics focusing on psychotherapy and interventions? At my program there are times when there are more social workers and psychologists teaching rather than psychiatrist attendings. Many times we also have social worker and psychology interns in our classes as well. They do a fair job at teaching, however I don't think they realize that we are not going to have 2 hour sessions once we start practicing that a therapist has in order to provide certain interventions. We also are not receiving as much education on psychopharm and biological/neuro psychiatry. We currently have 5 hours of didactics a week and only one hour is being taught by an attending psychiatrist.

😀....Trust me me, we know you are likely not going to have the traditional therapuetic hour. The point is to provide the resident with an indepth background and working knowledge of psychotherapy. It doesnt mean you are expected to practrice it. Also, it is certainly helpful to get an indepth understanding of what might be happening with your patients during the traditional therapuetic hour, since many of them may be in outpatient psychotherapy as well.

 

[Doc Samson]

And there are plenty of practicing psychiatrists who DO provide the traditional psychotherapy hour.

 

[Summit02]

Is it common to have social workers and psychologist teaching didactics focusing on psychotherapy and interventions? At my program there are times when there are more social workers and psychologists teaching rather than psychiatrist attendings. Many times we also have social worker and psychology interns in our classes as well. They do a fair job at teaching, however I don't think they realize that we are not going to have 2 hour sessions once we start practicing that a therapist has in order to provide certain interventions. We also are not receiving as much education on psychopharm and biological/neuro psychiatry. We currently have 5 hours of didactics a week and only one hour is being taught by an attending psychiatrist.

Non physicians can teach therapy and you should know therapy well because you are supposed to be able to do it as well as any other clincian out there.

However, there are 2 main reasons to have therapy taught by a psychiatrist.

1) Only the psychiatrist knows your training and can truly understand your background. They know the feeling when your patient asks you about medication in the middle of the therapy. Although psychologists or social workers get asked about meds as well, we have an instinct to act becuase we know how and becasue we can. A similar situation is when a patient talks to you about a disease. Your reaction will be different than that of a non physician and your therapy may be radically different as well. Another physician will intuitively know where you are coming from.

2) Only a psychiatrist can guide you in using both medical intervention and therapy at the same time. This is not done enough overtly although we all learn to do it in our own ways. When taught well, it provides the resident with a powerful tool. Most psychiatry programs compartmentalize the 2 modalites however and it is unfortunate.