Formal training is antithetical to the spirit of psychotherapy: A review and commentary

To suggest that formal training is antithetical to the spirit of psychotherapy appears inherently contradictory. This paper is, however, an invitation to a critical examination of the dilemmas and paradoxes sourrounding formal training courses and the practice of psychotherapy. More specifically, the paper examines the ethical and institutional arguments which surround formal training courses and the practice of psycho-analytical therapies. A review of the opinions of several leading psychotherapists and a selective review of the research literature is used to reconcile the tensions between formal training and the process of psychotherapy. It is concluded that, with appropriate safeguards and flexibility, formal training need not be antithetical to the spirit of psychotherapy.