| Becoming a psychotherapist involves a lengthy process of learning wherein the development of foundational and functional competencies entails challenging transformations of a trainee's identities, at both personal and professional levels. Such challenges pose particular demands during the initial phases of training, as novice therapists are first faced with the daunting process of acquiring the discipline's vast body of conceptual knowledge, procedural skills, and attitudinal values. They must undergo complex assimilations and accommodations in order to meet the ontological, epistemological, behavioral, and relational benchmarks that are evidentiary of their readiness for clinical practice.;Given the paucity of evidence correlating academic preparation and basic competence of psychotherapists, and the absence of adequate directives and efficient strategies for the preparation of novice trainees, educators and trainers are often left to determine for themselves how to go about teaching and implementing the various phase-specific competencies. Although most accredited psychotherapy programs have focused on upgrading the quality of professional training, by articulating the necessary skills and the desirable competencies required of students, educators and researchers often find themselves fending for useful models of therapist development.;The training model that has emerged from the integration of findings from comprehensive conceptual and empirical literature reviews undertaken in this study is presented in Appendix A as the "Integrative Psychotherapy Training Model-Instructor Manual and Resource Guide," which is intended to assist educators in structuring and implementing a competency-based model that is theoretically driven, conceptually integrated, and evidence- based in its developmental and holistic approach to novice psychotherapist training. The integrative model's selection of competencies is expected to constitute a solid transtheoretical foundation upon which beginning practitioners can initiate a thorough understanding of the process of psychotherapy, and enhance their ability to catalyze central common factors in effective psychotherapeutic practice. |
