LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf Hospital of the Heinrich-Heine University ...

4.2.2 Department of Psychosomatic Medicine
and Psychotherapy
The department provides specialty training in
psychotherapeutic medicine, in compliance with the relevant
guidelines of the Medical Association North Rhine. Doctors
in their medical internship as well as doctors undergoing
specialty training are encouraged to acquire skills,
experiences and knowledge in the theoretic fundamentals,
diagnostics, differential diagnostics and therapy of mental
illnesses and disorders.
Post-graduate medical doctors need at least five years for
their specialist training in psychotherapeutic medicine.
Three of these years must be spent in psychotherapeutic
medicine, one year in internal medicine and one year
in psychiatry. During this time, the doctors undergoing
specialty training acquire comprehensive theoretical
knowledge as well as experiences in a wide range of
psychotherapy techniques. They also have the opportunity
of familiarising themselves with these techniques in
different types of psychotherapy environments (inpatient,
partial hospitalisation and outpatient). These intensive
psychotherapies are supervised internally as well as – in
the course of casuistic-technical seminars – by external
supervisors. Lectures and seminars serve to convey
the fundamentals of psychobiology, psychophysiology,
development psychology, personality models and
the science of neuroses. We also familiarise young
graduates with psychodiagnostic test methods, behaviour
diagnostics, the dynamics of relationships between
couples and members of the same group as well as the
teACHinG
psychoanalytical and cognitive-behavioural methods of
psychotherapy. The specialty training in psychotherapeutic
medicine extends beyond the acquisition of theoretical
knowledge and experiences in the supervised application of
psychotherapeutic techniques to self-awareness exercises,
conducted in Balint groups and in individual as well as group
sessions. Psychologists who participated in this programme
during the period under review ultimately obtained the
license to practice as psychological psychotherapists.
The specialty training curricula were delivered in close
cooperation with the Institute for Psychotherapeutic
Medicine, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy
Düsseldorf and the Institute for Psychoanalysis and
Psychotherapy Düsseldorf. Joint ventures such as these are
necessary because some of the courses the post-graduates
are supposed to take – for example, the self-awareness
training – cannot legally take place in the context of an
(office) relationship of dependence. In cooperation with
these institutions of higher learning, the hospital can provide
medical doctors and psychologists in general practice with
a wide range of continuing medical education and specialty
training courses. Both the courses in the fundamentals
of psychosomatic medicine and the specialty training in
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis serve to integrate the
psychotherapeutic/psychosomatic healthcare approaches
into the primarily somatic work of medical doctors. In
addition, external experts are regularly invited as guest
speakers and as contributors to seminars. (See overview of
programmes 2001-2009: Table 19)
Table 19: Continuing medical education and specialty teaching seminars in 2001
Lecturer Course Title
E. Brähler, Leipzig Sex- and age-dependency of physical complaints over the
course of time
E.-M. Biermann-Rathjen, Hamburg Association theory and the theory of client-centred psychotherapy
Heide, Düsseldorf Child and adolescent psychosomatic medicine
M. Löwer-Hirsch, Düsseldorf Social dreaming
A. Kolping-Derichsweiler, Mönchengladbach Integrative physical therapy: an introduction to the Hakomi method
A. Schweickhardt What are we actually doing when we are empathetic?
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