Psychotherapy competencies: development and implementation

New requirements by the Psychiatry Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education maintain that residents must be competent in five specified psychotherapies. This shift toward evidence-based education and assessment highlights psychotherapy as an integral part of a psychiatrist's training and identity, while introducing accountability of training programs, faculty, and individual residents. Training directors must now find the resources in faculty, patients, and residency teaching time to teach, supervise and assess residents so they graduate with competency. The American Association of Directors of Residency Training (AADPRT) appointed a Task Force on Competency to assist training directors with the new requirements. The Task Force, through the establishment of five workgroups, has written sample competencies for each required psychotherapy: brief, cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, supportive and combined psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. In this article, the authors describe the historical context of the new requirements, and the goals, process and issues that arose in the development of the sample competencies.