The legal regulation of psychotherapy and counselling as independent professions: what can we learn from Austria?

Abstract

Since the adoption of the Psychotherapy Act in Austria in 1990, which defined psychotherapy as an independent profession and autonomous scientific discipline, its main positive effects are clear: an increase in the number of psychotherapists, an increased funding for psychotherapy and improved access to psychotherapy services. Cooperation between psychotherapists, psychologists, medical doctors and psychiatrists performing psychotherapeutic activities in health care, as well as education and research in the field of psychotherapy, have all improved. However, we can also learn a lot from the shortcomings of the Austrian law, which will soon be improved by the amendment they are preparing. It will remove age restrictions on the commencement of education in psychotherapeutic approaches and on the start of independent practice. The proposed amendment will also more clearly outline the possibility of direct academic education in psychotherapy after high school at the undergraduate and master's level and expand the powers of the Chamber of Psychotherapists. The OECD's recommendations for improvement of Austrian system for mental health protection, which could be informative also for Slovenian situation, cover five points: resource shifts, changes in drug treatment practices, empowering general practitioners to play a more important role, changes in funding for psychotherapy, and improving employment in mental health care. After showing how counselling is organised in Austria, which is in a cooperative and complementary relationship with psychotherapy, I conclude with thirteen lessons that can be extracted from the Austrian example for the normative regulation of psychotherapy and counselling in Slovenia.