We had a lot of fun and found it very
stimulating. There were many good lectures. I will
never forget the morning sessions where Steve and
Marshall guided us through a fascinating transcript of
an analysis that took place some years ago. It was fun
to be exposed to two CMT therapists, with different
styles and attitudes but together made a valuable
complementary unit.
For the most part it was not a problem to have
lectures in the English language, but I must admit that
I didn't know why all of a sudden everybody was
laughing at one point in Bader's workshop, but that
was only until the guy next to me translated and told
me that Bader was talking about a patient who was
turned on by Dentures!!
Being a Psychology student I came to hear of CMT
in 2006. My teacher and supervisor Per Binder had
been at the March workshop. Dag Aulie and Hans
Peter Broch had been there for God knows how many
years and me and my fellow students were third
generation participants in that respect.
Looking at my own situation now in May 2007, I
have participated at the annual workshop, have
started writing my thesis on the theory, and I have also
been accepted as an intern at SFPRG starting this
summer. Great!
When I was there I asked many of you how you get
your license in the U.S. I must say I was a bit
confused, since there seem to be many ways to
Rome for American students who want to do therapy.
In this article I will tell you how to become a
Psychologist in Norway, why I would like to come to
SFPRG and also use this opportunity to tell you that
we don't have a place to stay during my internship.
SO: If anybody knows about an apartment from
August to December that we can rent, I will be forever
grateful for all help. My little family consists of my
fiance, my baby boy, who is 6 months, and myself. My
fiance has maternity leave so its so nice that the
whole family can go "over there".
The Psychology Program at University in Bergen,
Norway
After you have graduated from high school in
Norway, all males must do one year of mandatory
training in the military. Being a basketball player I got
to play basketball all this year, but not all are as lucky
as I. Many young Norwegian men have spent freezing
nights in the wintertime somewhere in the middle of
nowhere wishing they could be closer to mum's warm
secure base.
When you decide to enter the university and want
to become a Psychologist, there is only one program
that you can apply to after completing a foundation
course. First you take the foundation course together
with (roughly) 750 other students. After the
introduction year is completed, you apply for the 5 year
program that will make you a certified Psychologist.
You don't need a lot of imagination to realize that
there is a lot of competition getting into the 5 year
program. One time there was a fellow student sitting
next to me at a lecture in the introductory course. We
were both taking the same course for the second
time, (to improve our grades) and thereby our chances
to get admitted to the program. She asked me if I
wanted to exchange papers that we had written
separately, where upon I agreed. She made it very
clear that we were not to show them to other students.
Two weeks later, I was studying at a library when I
heard the voice of this female student expressing an
intense frustration. I walked out in the hallway and
saw her with my paper in her hand, gesticulating to a
fellow student friend that she didn't agree with the
disposition I had written. Today she is in my class but
much more calm.
It's not just fun to be an introductory student.
Being one out of 750 and knowing that only 36
students are permitted to the program, does
something to your psyche. I have worked some years
at the local psychiatric hospital in our town, and there
are always some students that are hospitalized after
the exam period.
The good thing is that you can take retake the
exam if the grades don't meet your standard or the
standard to get accepted. I have a friend that took the
same exam 4 times. After the second time, we
stopped joking about it to him, but today we can look
back at it with a smile since he got accepted to the
programme on his 4th try.
The Psychology program is all together 6 years,
consisting of one year introductory course and 5 years
of the professional program. In the professional
programme, we have 2.5 years of foundation subjects
with ordinary exams. The last 2.5 years we don't have
exams and that is wonderful. But, we have our own
patients, and that can be more challenging than an
exam or a test.
Our faculty has its own therapy clinic. It's divided
into three institutes: pediatrics, youth and elderly
patients. These patients agree to be videotaped and
treated by a student therapist. In return the patients
get treatment without charge, a short waiting list and
eager students that really want to help them. Some
informal research done at the clinic has shown that
most patients are pleased with their treatment by
students.
We as students work in groups of four, where we
have our own patients, but we share the same
supervisor. We get supervision every week and It is
fair to say that we probably are being influenced too
some extent by our supervisors. Being new to the
therapy field, we are dependent on supervision. Good
supervisors let the student find their own style, and
make room for the students not to be rigid and
defensive, but rather empathic and bold. I believe that
Nancy McWilliams has a valid point when she claims
that Psychotherapy is art.
When we have one year left of the program, we
have to have a practicum at an institution outside the
University. Some students work at a local hospital,
others with school psychology, while even others have
training at a business or foundation. This coming fall I
will have my external practicum, and I would like to go
to SFPRG.
In the last semester of our education we write our
final thesis, and for my sake it happens to be on CMT
and what promotes change in therapy. What a
coincidence! I can get my training and get to be
around professional CMT resources!
After graduation we get licensed as clinical
Psychologists. It is only students from the 6 year
program that get to call themselves Psychologists and
that is probably why there is so much competition
getting permitted to the last 5 year program.
What I have described is how it works in the city of
Bergen. Cities like Oslo, Trondheim and Tromso also
offer Psychology education, but there are just as many
students at these Universities, so the competition is
still a major factor for admission.
When you get your Psychologist degree you can
treat patients but you can also do research. Some
students decide to go into a doctoral program and do
research. If you like to be a researcher you don't have
to go through the 6 year program. You can get your
B.A and followed by an M.A. and are then eligible to do
research, but not to call yourself a Psychologist and
do therapy.
So, that's how it's done in Norway. Almost all
academic disciplines are divided into B.A and M.A, but
three schools have retained their old degrees which
are Psychology, medicine and odontology. I am very
pleased to be in the program, and very excited of all
the possibilities it lays the ground for. It is very
competitive to get accepted, but when you get into the
professional program there are so many possibilities,
so many resources and a bright professional future,
since Psychologist not are unemployed in Norway.
We have a lot of clinical training in a safe environment
with professional supervisors. And, if we like, we get
to travel and do exchange visits like I plan to do this
summer.
-All I need now is an apartment in the Bay area,
and I am on my way for a new adventure, in the land of
the free and the home of the brave.
See you soon, Love, Jan-Martin
