This is intended to make studying cheaper and expand the range of therapies available. After criticism in the assessment phase, direct entry into the master’s degree should now be open to more professions, and internships in clinics and rehabilitation facilities should also be mandatory. With the reform, which will be introduced in parliament on Wednesday and approved before the summer, the government wants to make psychotherapy training, which currently costs up to 50,000 euros, more easily accessible. This should also enable more people to receive therapy.
Demand has increased significantly
In the current times of crisis, the need has increased significantly, emphasized Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) in the foyer after the Council of Ministers. Of the psychotherapists currently available, only about half of those people who would like to receive psychotherapeutic treatment can be cared for. Psychotherapy is also the last high-ranking and self-responsible health profession in Austria without academic training, so the university offer is also a sign of recognition.
Education goes to public universities
The planned reform envisages that psychotherapy training will move from private non-university training institutions to public universities. Instead of the two-year preparatory course and – depending on the subject area – the three to six-year specialist course, you should complete a two-year master’s degree in psychotherapy at the university after completing a relevant bachelor’s degree. The third part of the training is postgraduate psychotherapeutic specialist training at psychotherapeutic specialist societies, during which you can work therapeutically under supervision.
During the assessment phase, there was criticism from many quarters that only graduates of courses such as psychology and medicine should be allowed to start the new master’s program directly. This list has now been expanded to include social work, medical-technical services and qualified health and nursing, says Rauch. For all further studies, the university checks individually whether the necessary requirements are met.
Criticism from medicine was also addressed in the adapted draft: In the third training phase, the method-specific specialist training, internships are now mandatory not only in psychotherapeutic practice, but also at institutions such as clinics or rehabilitation facilities. “This means that the therapists also become familiar with numerous different psychiatric illnesses during their training.” In addition, specialists in psychiatry or with additional training in psychotherapeutic medicine should only have to complete the third stage of training and thus receive a license to practice as a psychotherapist without a master’s degree.
More Master’s study places “logically conceivable”
For Rauch, an expansion of Master’s study places, as requested by the Austrian Federal Association for Psychotherapy (ÖBVP), would be “logically conceivable”. However, the next government will probably have to take a close look at how the offer is accepted.
Incidentally, the amendment provides for long transition periods for the change in the system: the preparatory course from an existing training course can be completed by the end of September 2030, the specialist course by 2038 at the latest.
