[Child psychotherapy in medical practice and the clinic--15 years of the "Brühl Model"].

Abstract

Living in an industrial society places considerable stress on children and on adolescents, to which they react with behavioural disturbances and psychosomatic disorders. So far, physicians have been trained only insufficiently at universities with regard to psychotherapy, which means they cannot cope sufficiently with such problems if they are confronted with them in their clinical and practical work. Hence, a continuing education programme called the "Brühl Model" has been worked out which imparts knowledge on child psychology and child psychotherapy by means of three-year courses based on depth psychology. This corresponds to the "small-scale psychotherapy in medical practice" as conceived by J. H. Schultz and M. Balint. This educational programme has been largely adapted to the demands made at the Manheim Physicians' Congress in 1977 with regard to acquiring adequate proficiency in the subject of psychotherapy, and has been accepted by the German professional boards of physicians. 600 colleagues have since been undergoing this training during the past 15 years with success. The present seventh training course is now also open to the colleagues from the new German Laender of the former GDR.