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Some
guidelines and thoughts regarding the establishment of a regional or local
Center of Positive Psychotherapy
Recently, we have
received increased questions regarding the practical ways to establish
a local or regional Center of Positive Psychotherapy. Even the circumstances
differ from locality to locality, there are nevertheless some common issues.
The following ideas are based on experiences made in many countries. It
is also based on a recent proposal we have prepared for the application
of grants from different foundations. But, they are just suggestions,
which may have to be adjusted to the local circumstances. Please contact
the ICPP Head Office for further information or guidelines, as there is
other information available.
There are mainly two
questions:
- organizational
structure
- training structure
Character
and main focus of the Center:
It is very important
that the Center is broad on one hand, but specializes on the other, as
it is not possible to do everything in an excellent way. Based on your
own experience, professional background, affiliated organists, financial
circumstances, national conditions etc., you may want to focus more on
teaching and training, treating patients, training of students, scientific
research or other activities.
Place:
There are two places
necessary: an office/secretariat, and a place for the training itself.
At the beginning, it is important to have an office where one does not
pay any additional rent. Usually, it is located at the same university
where the director of the Center is working or teaching. This should be
also the official address, e.g. 'Center of Positive Psychotherapy in New
York at the Department of Psychology of the University of New York'. For
the training one needs a larger hall (auditorium) for about 50-100 persons,
and several smaller rooms for workshops and groups.
Technical
equipment:
The basic technical
equipment for the training rooms is a flip chart or blackboard, and an
overhead projector. The office would need a PC with Internet access, a
separate email account (the ICPP can give to every Center a separate email
address with the ending of ?.@positum.org), a phone/fax machine and a
copy machine.
Finances:
The goal and vision
is to get the new center to become financially self-supporting and profitable.
This is possible, but needs a concrete expansion plan and a budget. With
this it is very realistic to become profitable within a few years. The
key is the so-called multiplying or snowball effect. If you can establish
some branches or local centers, they will easily multiply the income (but
also the expenses). According to our calculation, within 2-3 years a Center
can become financially independent and profitable.
- The main sources
of income are: the selling of psychotherapeutic literature, training
seminars for specialists, counseling and psychotherapeutic sessions
for patients and clients, public talks and seminars for the general
public on psychotherapeutic and family issues, and the organization
of an annual scientific conference or symposia for specialists.
- The main expenses
are: salary of 1-2 therapists in the new Center, salary of a secretary
(at the beginning part-time might be enough), travelling costs to other
centers within the country or region, rent of the office, purchase of
technical equipment as described above, costs for translations and translators,
production of psychotherapeutic literature, honorary for the trainers
at seminars, organization of the annual conference.
Registration:
In some countries
it might be the best to go immediately for a legal registration of the
new Center as a separate legal entity, in order to be able to arrange
for seminars, to open a bank account, to issue certificates. In many places,
it might be better to wait with the official registration and let the
new Center be at the university or another established institution. This
approach would minimize the organizational problems at the beginning,
so that one could focus on the training courses. However, it might be
the best to start the work and only to register after some time when the
Center has become more stable and active.
Accreditation:
The goal must be to
get the training program in each country accredited by the official accreditiating
organizations, which might be the Ministry of Education or Health, a medical
association or another special organization. It might be of assistance
to your endeavors to mention that the different organizations of Positive
Psychotherapy have been accredited in Germany and Europe. The agreement
to be signed could be either with the ICPP, the EFCPP, the German Association
of Positive Psychotherapy (DGPP) or the Wiesbaden Academy for Psychotherapy
(WIAP) – depending on your local circumstances and needs.
- The International
Center for Positive Psychotherapy is the umbrella organization of national
and continental organizations in the field of Positive Psychotherapy.
It is registered in Germany as a registered body.
- The European Federation
of the Centers for Positive Psychotherapy (EFCPP) – the umbrella
Organization of all centers in Europe – has been official accepted
by the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) as a European Wide
Organization (EWO) and a European Wide Accrediting Organization (EWAO).
Therefore it can officially train people according to the standards
of the ?European Certificate for Psychotherapy?.
- The Wiesbaden Academy
of Psychotherapy has been officially accepted and licensed for the postgraduate
training of medical doctors, psychologists and pedagogues for the training
in psychotherapy.
Agreement
or Contract:
It is possible to
sign some kind of agreement or contract of cooperation between the ICPP
and the new Center. In many places this might be necessary and useful
in order to show it to officials and other organization. The agreement
to be signed could be either with the ICPP, the EFCPP, the German Association
of Positive Psychotherapy (DGPP) or the Wiesbaden Academy for Psychotherapy
(WIAP) – depending on your local circumstances and needs.
Steps
towards the foundation of a Center:
Usually the first
step, is an introductory seminar of Positive Psychotherapy held by an
ICPP main trainer from Germany. Then the interested participants can meet
regularly, e.g. 1-4 times per month, in order to discuss some cases and
problems. Once all three basic courses are finished it is the best time
to found a Center. Before that it is possible to sign an agreement of
cooperation between the ICPP and the planned Center.
Participants:
The Center has to
determine on which specialists it wants to focus, and this will depend
on the professions and training of the director of the Center and the
place of his or her work. So, a Center might decide to concentrate more
on medical doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists, nurses,
teachers or other (mental) health professionals. This will also depend
on your national regulations how and who can become a psychotherapist.
Amount
of participants:
In order to be able
to start a Center, it would be important to have a team maybe 15-25 trained
persons in Positive Psychotherapy. In order to achieve that, you have
to bear in mind the pyramid effect. You have to start with a large group
to have at the end at least a small group of trained people. The participants
get less and less after each seminar, which has to do with many issues,
including personal circumstances. A good number of participants from the
first seminar are 70, then the second will be around 50, and after the
third about 30 people will get the basic certificate. These 30 people
will be your basis on which you will establish your Center and train other
people in future. The number of participants has also a great effect on
the finances of the Center, so it might be better to postpone a seminar
until you have enough participants in order not to have a final loss afterwards.
Trainers:
the basic training
in Positive Psychotherapy consists of 3 courses, each of about 25-40 hours.
At the beginning, the trainers will be from the ICPP Headquarters, but
the purpose is to give the basic training as soon as possible into local
hands. Then, the trainers from abroad will conduct only specialist courses.
It is also possible and recommended to invite trainers not only from Germany,
but also from other countries where Positive Psychotherapy is well established.
Certificates:
One has to accept
the fact that the issuing of certificates is one of the most important
issues for a Center. This depends to a great extend on the national regulations
as which certificate is accepted or not, e.g. is a foreign certificate
accepted or only the own ones. In some places, the participants receive
only a certificate from the local organizer, which would be the new Center,
in some places only the foreign own from the ICPP, in some others, they
receive even two certificates. The certificates have always to mention
the exact number of hours of the training and the main kind of training
e.g. theory, self-discovery group, supervision etc. Only with this information
they can later be sued in order to get a national or international diploma
of psychotherapy. Once a trainer is certified by the ICPP, he can issue
himself the certificates for the 3 basic courses. In all other cases,
most of the certificates will come from the ICPP, at least, at the beginning.
Data
Base:
It is advisable to
keep from the very beginning a data base with the names, addresses and
personal information of the participants, and the number of their certificate
etc. Within a short time, this data base will consists of several thousand
people, which can be always contacted and mail can be send out to them,
for example, through an electronic newsletter by email.
Contact
with officials:
It is very important
to establish from the very beginning good working relationship, maybe
even friendship, with officials from health, politics and mass media.
A good opportunity is the formal opening of the Center, which could be
celebrated with some kind of small celebration, banquet and/or scientific
symposia. However, it should be made clear to them that the ICPP is a
non-profit organization, which is engaged in the promotion of health.
It has no resources to invite politicians to Germany etc.
Different
kinds of training and eligibility to receive a degree:
Mainly one has to
differentiate between the training of specialists and layman.
At the present, eligible
to received a title as a psychotherapist from the ICPP are medical doctors,
psychologists and in some cases teachers and child pedagogues. Other professionals
can receive the title of a family Counsellor. But, this depends to a large
extend on the national regulations, if they are any.
At the same time,
it might be very useful to start shorter training programs for specialists
such as teachers, lawyers, managers, politicians etc. they could be on
a more commercial basis and would focus on issues such as conflict management,
personal management, positive stress management etc. These seminars could
be about 100 hours of training, which are 5 weekends within one year.
But, these seminars are secondary to the training of psychotherapeutic
specialists.
Financial
support:
There are theoretically
many organizations, which could assists financially or sponsor the actives
of the Center. One may start with the own organization, university, and
national organsiaitos, WHO and other foreign organizations and foundations.
Financial
conditions:
The participants have
to pay a fee for each course, which should be not less than that of other
professional psychotherapeutic or medical seminars. Students are allowed
to participate, but they should not be more than 20% of the participants,
at they cannot receive postgraduate certificates, and cannot be the basis
of your Center at this moment. We highly discourage from permitting people
to participate free-of-charge. The experience has shown that the human
nature does not appreciate anything, which is given free, and often there
are fewer participants when the seminar is free. Another possibility,
which we have tried successfully, is, to have a low participation fee
(e.g. $ 20),, which would enable many people to particoaüpte, and
to charge another amount for the certificate (e.g. $ 20). Most people
become so interested during the seminar that at the end they are willing
to pay the additional money for the certificate, but at the beginning
they would not have done so. (Note: the figures of $20 are just an example).
The
honorary of the trainers:
The honorary of the
trainers has to be discussed individually as it differs from person to
person, and country to country.
Teaching
Materials and books:
One of the first activities
of each Center should be the publication of at least on of the major books
on Positive Psychotherapy in the national language. Parallel the other
books could be promoted, and later a journal could be published. The should
be a publication plan, so that within a few years several books on Positive
Psychotherapy would be translated and published, which would then stimulate
others to publish their experiences in articles and/or books. It is advisable
to prepare for each seminar some kind of teaching materials in a brochure
and to give them to the participates as a guideline.
Scientific
activities:
this depends on the
interest and possibilities of the members of the Center. The main fields
would be Transcultural research with the tools of Positive Psychotherapy,
and the results could be published in journals and presented at conferences
etc. this would also help to establish good relationship with important
leaders of thought, and to promote the reputation of the Center and the
method of Positive Psychotherapy in the respected country. Later, dissertations
and other works could and should be published on the application of Positive
Psychotherapy in the country.
Marketing:
In order to promote
the teaching program and to spread the knowledge about the existance of
the Center, you may want to
- prepare a small
pamphlet or brochure with basic information about your Center, the ICPP,
and the method of Positive Psychotherapy, and the kind of services and
training your Center offers.
- to contact local
psychiatric, psychological or medical organizations, to invite them
to the Center and to discuss mutual activities
- lectures and public
meetings should be planned to inform academic circles and the general
public about your plans and existence
- some special TV
interviews or programs could be offered; articles for newsletters could
be written by the director of the Center
- some monthly information
evening could be arranged at the Center
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