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The purpose of this paper is to examine pre and post outcome measures following a course of Compassionate Mind Training (CMT). Participants were students enrolled on a Post Graduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy (CBP). The aim of the research was to explore whether CMT would increase self-compassion, compassion for others, dispositional empathy and reduce self-critical judgement.

In total, 21 participants who had enrolled on the CBP programme took part in the study. Data were collected using the self-compassion scale, interpersonal reactivity index, and the compassion for others scale.

Results reveal an overall statistically significant increase in self-compassion scores and statistically significant reduction in self-critical judgement scores post training. There was no statistically significant difference post training on the interpersonal reactivity index or the compassion for others scale.

CMT training may help students develop healthy coping strategies, which they can use to balance their affect regulation systems when faced with organisational, placement, client, academic, personal and supervision demands. Further research and longitudinal studies, using larger sample sizes are needed to explore if cultivating compassion whilst on psychotherapy training helps students build resilience and provide a barrier against empathic distress fatigue, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout.

Incorporating CMT into a CBP programme may bring changes in student levels of self-compassion and self-critical judgement.

This inaugural study examines whether incorporating CMT into a CBP programme impacts on students levels of compassion, dispositional empathy and self-critical judgement. The findings from this preliminary study suggest the potential benefits of training students in compassion focused practices.

There has been a recent initiative in England to establish a wider provision of psychotherapy. Studying the models of psychological treatment and experiences in other countries may enable policy makers in England to learn lessons and avoid pitfalls. This paper assesses and compares the provision of psychotherapy for adults in a selected number of European and non‐European countries. A structured list of psychotherapy features was used to collect information from each country on the number of psychotherapists, professional qualifications, the settings and models of psychotherapy, the referral procedures, funding arrangements, quality management and outcome assessments. These data were then compared in a non‐systematic way. Comparison of levels of provision was the most difficult to establish, but the findings suggest that psychotherapy that is broadly free at the point of entry is more widely available in other EU countries than in England. They also show that the plans currently being discussed for a psychotherapy service in England differ from those provided in most of the other countries in this study. The differences include the lack of statutory accreditation rules and lower qualification thresholds for psychotherapists, the concept of treatment centres, the low number of sessions, and the regular assessment of outcome data. Therefore, based on this comparison, the necessity of these features, their priority and possible alternatives may need to be considered.

This paper seeks to report upon psychiatric trainees' experience of providing psychodynamic therapy for the first time and their experience of group supervision.

A total of five trainees, undertaking training in psychodynamic therapies, were interviewed on multiple occasions over an 18‐month period – before, during, and after undertaking their first case of psychodynamic therapy. A semi‐structured, qualitative interview approach was used to explore providing psychodynamic psychotherapy and participating in psychodynamic supervision groups. Interviews were transcribed in full and data analysed following the conventions of thematic analysis.

Trainees' anxieties about working psychodynamically and their concerns for developing new competencies are recognised. Personal and professional challenges associated with this therapeutic approach are identified and the importance of ”looking after” trainees is stressed; the role of trainee supervision groups in this is advocated. The potential challenges of integrating psychodynamic thinking into general psychiatric practice are discussed and suggestions to address these difficulties are proposed.

The small sample size reflects the total number of trainees participating in training at the time of the study; for future work, a larger sample drawn from multiple training centres would be recommended.

Training in psychotherapy is now mandatory for all trainee psychiatrists and this is something which many trainees find daunting; training in psychodynamic techniques is particularly challenging. A fuller awareness and understanding of trainees' experiences is important in nurturing clinicians who are competent in psychodynamic thinking, and who might consequently apply these skills clinically.

The purpose of this paper is to report the evidence base for the practice of individual psychodynamic psychotherapy with adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs).

Literature review.

In total, 14 papers were reviewed. From these, one existing review and seven individual papers provided enough evidence to support effectiveness of individual psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with IDs.

This research indicates individual psychodynamic psychotherapy to be of benefit. Indeed, all studies reviewed supported individual psychodynamic psychotherapy, but methodological shortcomings weakened the confidence placed in findings for some studies. Limitations of this review include methodological shortcomings of studies reviewed, a small number of existing studies and reliance on case studies.

Therapists and commissioners of services should routinely make individual psychodynamic psychotherapy available as part of a spectrum of therapies available to people with IDs who experience emotional and behavioural problems. This is because it is needed for some clients and they benefit.

Individual psychodynamic psychotherapy for people with IDs adds to the range of therapies available to alleviate emotional distress and enhance well-being. These are necessary to provide a foundation for meaningful contribution to society, particularly for those who have experienced psychological trauma (Frankish, 2016).

This review includes more relevant studies than previous reviews and adds to a limited number of reviews in this area.

The purpose of this paper was to explore the development of the professional identity of South African intern psychologists during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper – that presents a historical reflection borne from a significant moment in time – aimed to capture what the authors can learn from this specific cohort of intern psychologists and their experiences of work-based learning.

Through the lens of the interpretative phenomenological approach, the authors analysed seven semi-structured interviews. Data analysis involved a line-by-line analysis of each individual transcript, where after a thorough, in-depth analysis was conducted across all the cases.

Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings demonstrated the interns' initial uncertainties, severe exhaustion, perceived gaps in their training, and resilience despite unusual and difficult circumstances in their WBL internship.

The study was limited to seven intern psychologists in South Africa.

The findings suggest that support – during and after the COVID-19 pandemic – is crucial throughout the training of psychologists and means to facilitate and develop professional identity and resilience. This will provide the opportunity to safeguard emerging healthcare professionals from burnout while simultaneously advocating for supportive WBL and continual professional development spaces protecting healthcare professionals and the public.

With this article, we explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the professional identity development of intern psychologists (psychologists in training). The authors expand on the aforementioned original contribution, since the authors situate their research within the Global South. More specifically, the authors explored how intern psychologists' developed their professional identities against the backdrop of a largely resource-scarce context of South Africa.

Despite the emergence of NICE guidelines regarding the effectiveness and appropriateness of psychological therapies for the majority of common mental health problems, access to these services is still dramatically underdeveloped and uneven. Estimates of untreated problems such as depression and anxiety in primary care signal the extent of these problems and the scale of investment in new services, if these needs are to be adequately met in the future.The Department of Health's and the Care Services Improvement Partnership's (CSIP) Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme sets out a framework and a series of co‐ordinated actions, including two national demonstration sites, to begin to address these issues in England.This paper examines the origins and policy drivers that have given rise to the IAPT programme, outlines the progress to date and specifically assesses the implications for the mental health workforce of this programme. Issues addressed include the workforce profiles of existing services, career frameworks for psychological therapists, the capacity of training providers to train new and existing staff in psychological therapies and the challenges implicit in devising a workforce delivery plan to support the IAPT programme.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview and analysis of a professional doctorate that was designed specifically for the training of psychologists in the fields of counselling psychology and psychotherapy, namely, the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy by Professional Studies (DCPsych).

This programme has needed to combine the demands of different professional bodies for the development of a range of clinical competencies with the doctoral level demands of the university and of the UK Quality Assurance Agency in terms of adherence to a required set of doctoral level descriptors.

The paper presents a critical review of a number of key areas that have needed to be addressed in both the design and delivery of this programme. It addresses in some detail the interface between clinical training and research activities, demonstrating how these can intertwine and mutually complement each other. Specific issues that are addressed in the paper include the articulation of relevant doctoral level descriptors, the teasing out of key areas that define doctoral level work and the complexities of putting some of these into practice within the DCPsych programme.

In particular, the paper reflects on the issue of critical capability at doctoral level, the challenge of making a significant contribution to the practice field and the implications for candidates of journeying towards a position of authority as they develop their doctoral work. The paper concludes with the suggestion that what has been developed is an extremely interesting and innovative programme that is not for the faint hearted.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences in the development of psychological therapies in three European Union countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France) in the context of national policies about health services and public mental health.

Three case studies are utilised for this purpose as historical descriptions. The latter are then discussed in the light of traditional approaches to the sociology of the professions.

Whilst some similarities are identified across the three countries (for example the recent convergence of policy interest in “evidence‐based practice”) it is also clear that the particular national cultures have shaped developments and their different forms of healthcare organisation have been reflected in national legislative and regulatory arrangements.

These case studies draw attention to the need to explore national variations in policy formation about the same matter (in this case the professionalization of psychological therapies) and to extend discussions within the sociology of the professions to ones of healthcare organizational contexts. In addition, the contested nature of applied psychology may require special attention relative to other forms of health work practice.

This paper provides a particular form of understanding about psychological practices within modern healthcare and public health policies, in the light of the peculiar and contextualised aspects of the case studies provided.

Two years ago, we published within this journal a scoping article (Turpin et al, 2006) concerning the urgent need to review and enhance the workforce responsible for delivering psychological therapies to people seeking help for common mental health problems in primary care (London School of Economics, 2006). We estimated that the demand for such interventions, the service models that might deliver increased capacity for psychological treatments, the implications for workforce numbers and the impact that this would have on education and training. Much of the thinking that was adopted within the review was based on current development work around the mental health workforce led by the National Workforce Programme sponsored by the National Institute for Mental Health England (NIMHE) on New Ways of Working (NWW).The current paper reflects on the process and the added value that NWW has contributed to what is a radical new venture, which has been described by the lead evaluator of the pilot Improving Access for Psychological Therapies (IAPT) phase, Professor Glenys Parry, as 'the industrialisation of psychological therapies'. More specifically, it reviews the implementation of a national programme designated as IAPT, which was commissioned on the basis of the NWW work, and the evidence accrued from the IAPT national demonstration sites at Doncaster and Newham, together with the efforts of Lord Layard and the New Savoy Partnership.The first year implementation of IAPT is described, together with the lessons learned from the roll out. As the programme has developed, it has become important to ensure that clients also have a choice of evidence‐based interventions. NWW has provided a means to help practitioners come together from a range of therapeutic orientations and professions to contribute to this more diverse workforce. Finally, it is argued that NWW has been instrumental in helping managers and professions alike think more flexibly about service models and provision, and how to develop a new workforce competent to deliver such an innovative service.