The place of psychotherapy in modern psychiatric practice

Abstract

This article makes a case for training and developing psychotherapeutically competent consultant general psychiatrists. It describes what such psychiatrists should know and suggests that they should be able to prescribe psychotherapy rationally and assess its outcome. They should be able to deliver some psychological treatments themselves but, more importantly, they should be competent to apply psychotherapeutic knowledge and emotional literacy skills to their routine clinical practice. Possible CPD experiences are suggested to increase the competencies of existing consultant general psychiatrists. © 2011 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.