Bavaria’s psychology students can breathe easy. The Free State is now creating the urgently needed master’s degree places for psychotherapy. There are currently only 75, a fraction of what is needed. In the future, 360 master’s places are to be offered at six Bavarian universities, Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) has now announced to the SZ.
These study places will be created for the winter semester of 2023, when the psychology bachelor students will be finished and can apply for the psychotherapy master’s degree. For the coming winter semester, however, there should already be a “voluntary bridging offer” for students under the old training regulations from October. In concrete terms, this means 90 places in the master’s program for clinical psychology and psychotherapy, 15 more than before. These additional ones are located at the Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg. More than 50 posts are planned for the implementation of the reform.
After the nationwide reform of training to become a psychotherapist, from next year students will have to complete a specially tailored master’s degree. In this way, they should quickly gain practical experience. In addition, the training should be aligned with that of a medical specialist.
The federal government leaves the federal states alone when it comes to financing, criticizes Blume
Minister Blume spoke of a “great effort” with which his house and the universities are implementing the reform initiated by the federal government. Student representatives, university presidents and representatives of the Chamber of Psychotherapists met with Blume at a round table on Tuesday. He expressly thanked them and immediately followed up with criticism of Berlin: The federal government “once again leaves the states alone with the implementation, especially in financial terms”.
The need for young therapists is immense: there are 6,169 psychotherapists licensed by statutory health insurance physicians in Bavaria, many of whom have waiting lists for months. The situation is exacerbated by delayed psychological reactions to the Corona period and increased demand due to the war in Ukraine. In addition, more and more people are going to see a psychologist or psychotherapist. Even before the far-reaching reform of training, there was always more demand than supply.
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) also sounds correspondingly positive: In the future, care should be secured at a “high level”. “Anyone who needs psychotherapeutic support in Bavaria should get it promptly and reliably.”