Y Model Psychotherapy Training: A Qualitative Investigation of Students’ Experiences

This article reports on a research project investigating psychology graduate students’ experiences of Y model psychotherapy training at an Australian university. Focus group interviews were conducted with clinical psychology students (N=20), and thematic analysis was used to capture core aspects of their training experience. Participants felt that the dual training in cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy gave them a significant advantage over students trained in only a single approach. Notwithstanding the perceived benefits of their training, participants emphasized how intellectually and emotionally demanding it was. Students struggled to shift between therapeutic orientations, both in learning about and conducting different therapies and in accommodating differing supervisory expectations. Psychodynamic therapy was viewed as the most conceptually, technically, and personally challenging component to learn, but also as the most enriching. Despite the emphasis the students placed on the psychodynamic arm of the Y model training, participants reported a variety of therapeutic identity positions, and most maintained a flexible view of how they would practice therapeutically.