DESCRIPTION OF PLACEMENT:
A placement in out patient psychotherapy which can be tailored to the needs of the individual but will include supervised work and teaching in psychodynamic and cognitive analytic therapy.

CORE PLACEMENT: yes

ROLE OF TRAINEE:
The trainee would be expected to have an interest in learning more about the role of psychotherapy in modern mental health services including which patients to refer and how assessments take place. There would be little expectation of prior knowledge of psychotherapy as this is clearly a training role and there are senior therapists in the department.
However trainees will be expected to take more of an active role in carrying out audit and management tasks within the department.

Previous trainees have usually seen at least one patient for psychodynamic or cognitive analytic therapy before doing the placement.

ON CALL: MRI rota for SpRs

SAFETY AND INDUCTION:
There will be routine local induction arranged at Gaskell House as well as induction to the MRI site.

FACILITIES:
Outpatient facilities including own room for trainee and ready access to networked computers.

SUPERVISION:
The trainee will be offered weekly educational supervision and clinical supervision with at least two clinical supervisors per week.

TEACHING/ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE:
There will be opportunity to be involved in teaching the attached SHOs and other SHOs from time to time. Trainees already on academic courses (eg MSc) will be released to pursue this.

AUDIT/RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES:
Opportunities exist for doing psychotherapy related research in the department and trainees are encouraged to be involved. It is expected that trainees will also conduct at least one audit during the year long placement.

MANAGEMENT TRAINING:
Weekly management seminars are held within term time in which trainees are encouraged to explore management issues and to conduct their own management projects. In addition, psychodynamic aspects of management and institutional issues are explored.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE:
There are several potential placements within the psychotherapy service (depending on availability) including: a) Involvement with the one day per week day programme for hard to help patients ‘Fifteen’; b) co-facilitating a women’s group (for survivors of sexual abuse); c) co-facilitating a Balint group for SHOs; c) experience of Interpersonal therapy; d) co-facilitating a Dialectical behaviour therapy skills group

DESCRIPTION OF ANY SPECIAL INTEREST SESSIONS OFFERED:
Special interest sessions can be offered for SpRs wishing to attend the psychotherapy journal club and management seminars on Thursday afternoons. This is usually attended in conjunction with seeing a patient for psychodynamic therapy and having clinical supervision of the case.