Psychotherapy training and experience of successful candidates in the MRCPsych examinations

Abstract

We conducted a survey of the psychotherapy training of a national sample of successful MRCPsych candidates to discover the extent of their psychotherapy training and their opinion about its adequacy. Ninety doctors answered the survey. Overall 71% of trainees had clinical experience in behavioural–cognitive psychotherapy and 78% in psychodynamic psychotherapy with fewer gaining experience in group and family psychotherapies. The majority of trainees were dissatisfied with the extent of their behavioural-cognitive psychotherapy training (82%) and psychodynamic training (50%). Trainees felt that their psychotherapy training was an important component of their psychiatric training.