Faculty Study of Psychotherapy Has Started in Slovenia

Abstract

The integration of psychotherapy to the academic world of universities is crucial for its affirmation as the autonomous scientificaly based discipline and as the autonomous profession. In October 2006 Sigmund Freud University (SFU) from Vienna and Slovenian Umbrella Association for Psychotherapy have started with the faculty study of psychotherapy (the enrollment is possible immediately after the secondary school) which is organized in accordance with Bologna process (three levels – bachelor, master, doctor). Paralelly SFU signed the agreement with Faculty of Applied Social Studies in Nova Gorica which enabled to the special project team to prepare and in February 2007 to apply for the accreditation of bachelor and master degree in Slovenia. The benefits of Slovenian accreditation would be many, for example student status, the possibility of state concession with the reduction of study costs. The innovative potential of the faculty study of psychotherapy is big and opens many possibilities for the realisation of new goals, for example the reduction of the insufficient number of psychotherapists in Slovenia, the integration of Slovenian psychotherapeutic scene, the improvement of the quality of the practice (for example in the frame of faculty outpatient department), the shortening and the simplification of the psychotherapy education, bigger emphasis on psychotherapy research etc. Potential employability possibilities for masters in psychotherapy science will be in social and health care system, in schools, health turism, in the field of psychosocial rehabilitation, psychosocial help programmes, paliative care, psychosocial counseling, in public, private, non-profit organisations and international charity organisations.