Training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist

Would you like to become a psychotherapist who works primarily with children and adolescents? Then you need to know that you need to complete postgraduate training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist after completing your master’s degree – only then can you work as such. We have put together all information about the training for you.

Provider for training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist

full-time

Part-time

The PIA portal of the German Psychotherapists Association lists numerous training institutes for psychotherapy.

The profession of licensed child and adolescent psychotherapist was established in 1999 when the Psychotherapist Act came into force. For example, it specifies exactly who is allowed to practice this profession, what requirements have to be fulfilled, how the training is carried out and what obligations exist.

Only those who already have a university degree (master or diploma) in a suitable subject are allowed to complete the state-recognized training. After passing the training exam, you will receive a license to practice and work as a child and adolescent psychotherapist and call yourself that.

The training focuses specifically on mental illnesses Children and Adolescents, on diagnostic procedures and behavioral interventions.

The special thing about the training, but also about your later job, is that the Age range of your patients from kindergarten to 21 years of age enough. Each age group has its own peculiarities that have to be given special consideration. But don’t worry: you will learn all of this in training. And exactly the variation of the different age groups will make your work varied and exciting.

Reform of the previous training path

The previous training as a psychotherapist is to be reformed and this also includes training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist. From autumn 2020, psychotherapy studies are to be introduced for the first time, which will replace the training path described here. After a five-year course in psychotherapy, you will receive the license to practice after the exam and must complete the further training that is necessary so that you can bill your services with the statutory health insurance companies.

Training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist

Training content and hourly shares

In the training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist, you will be specially prepared for working with different age groups. Because as already mentioned, you have patients of kindergarten age, teenagers, but also young adults up to 21 years. It goes without saying that you can’t talk to a 20-year-old like you would a toddler. And a teenager who was raised anti-authoritarian behaves differently than a well-grown teenager with so-called helicopter parents.

During your training, you will learn about various age-appropriate methods and types of therapy so that you can respond individually and professionally to each of your young patients.

You will get to know the general basic knowledge of psychotherapy and, depending on the educational institution, focus on one area, for example behavior therapy.

hours shares

According to the Psychotherapists Act, training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist comprises 4200 hours, which are divided into different areas as follows:

Theoretical training: 600 hours in the first two years of training. Here you learn all the basics and methods of psychotherapy.

Practical activity I: 1200 hours in a child and adolescent psychiatric clinic that cooperates with the educational institution. It is important that you collect experience in as wide a spectrum as possible – based on the various mental disorders, their characteristics, degrees of severity and the age of the patients should be very different.

Practical activity II: 600 hours in a psychotherapy care facility for children and adolescents, for example in a doctor’s practice.

Self-awareness: 120 hours. Your own therapist behavior is reflected and you are allowed to sit on the couch to learn how behavior therapy and its methods work. So you know how the patient feels. This will help you learn how to properly relate to the patient or how to experience emotion in the therapy process.

Practical training: At least 600 hours of treatment with children and adolescents. At least 50 hours of individual supervision and 100 hours of group supervision. The goal is that you acquire practical skills, for example in the areas of diagnostics, problem analysis and therapy planning, but also the documentation about the course of therapy needs to be learned.

Supervision: 150 hours. Supervision is carried out regularly, both in individual lessons (50 hours) and in group supervision.

The remaining 930 hours are scheduled for Preparation and follow-up times for example therapy sessions, supervision or even for optional or external events.

exams

At the end of your training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist, you will take your final exam, which consists of a written and an oral part. The written exam takes two hours. The oral exam consists of two parts: the first part is a half-hour individual exam, the second part takes place in a group with four participants and, like the written part, also lasts 120 minutes.

requirements

Since the training to become a child and adolescent psychotherapist is post-graduate, you must have a diploma or master’s degree. Here is an overview of all admission requirements for you:

Completed master’s or diploma studies at a state-recognized university in Germany. Accepted subjects include psychology, pedagogy or social pedagogy or social work
Practical experience in the therapeutic field
Partial interview
Motivation letter
If you have not yet completed your master’s degree: Submit transcipt of records

costs & pay

Training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist is unfortunately not cheap. There are no uniform costs, each educational institution determines its own fees.

So that you can get a rough idea, we have selected a few examples for you:

SRH Heidelberg: 550 euros / month at 36 months | 451 euros / month at 48 months + 250 euro admission fee
Bielefeld University: 360 euros / month with a term of 36 months (total of 20,200 euros) + enrollment as a guest student (100 euros per semester)
University of Koblenz-Landau: 15,030 euros
ZI Mannheim: 385 euros / month, a total of 13,860 euros

That’s a good deal of money, isn’t it? But that’s no reason to immediately overturn the planning, because there are various financing options. On the one hand, almost all training institutions speak of so-called refinancing during your training. This means that you can earn a little bit from your therapy hours in your practical training and thus create a little balance. How much you earn varies everywhere. But it is certain that you will not accumulate any wealth with this salary.

In the worst case, you don’t earn anything. Part-time training (duration: 5 years) gives you the opportunity to work alongside your training or to continue your previous job.

Financing options such as BAföG or educational loans give you some financial space. In our article too costs and student finance, we have put together many tips for you.

Career & salary

The job prospects for child and adolescent psychotherapists are very good. Because especially for children and adolescents in need of therapy, the offer of help is far too limited and not even nearly sufficient.

This means that various career paths are open to you after your training. You can …

. take up freelance work as a resident therapist in a practice within the framework of statutory health insurance. Then you treat legally insured children and adolescents.

. or work as a freelance therapist in a private practice. Then you take care of privately insured children and young people.

. or you go into an employment relationship and work either in clinics, child and adolescent psychiatric practices, in counseling centers or in curative education facilities.

Other options are:

Advice centers | Instruction of other professional groups in advisory or therapeutic questions
children’s homes
Inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation centers

As a child and adolescent psychotherapist, you never work alone. Because children, adolescents and young adults are on the move in social networks and have caregivers, for example parents, who still have a great influence on them. In this respect, your therapeutic measures must always be coordinated with the caregivers and the social circles should also be taken into account.

salary

The question of salary is always exciting, especially if you have a long training path over many years. We can not give you a uniform and binding statement, because the salary always depends on many different factors. For example from your employer or the city where you work.

According to the employment agency, the "exemplary gross tariff in the public sector tariff area (monthly) [between] 3,972 euros to 5,446 euros".

With the table you can get another idea of the salary:

activity	business	Gender and age	Company Size	Gross salary / month
Child and adolescent psychotherapist	Public administration, authorities	f, 39 years	51-100	€ 2,880
Child and adolescent psychotherapist	hospitals	f, 35 years old	1 – 5	€ 5,859
Child and adolescent psychotherapist	Social facilities	f, 36 years	1 – 5	€ 3,472

Advantages and disadvantages of training

benefits

Very practical training that prepares you to start your career as a psychotherapist
Personal support during the training
Possibility to become self-employed after completing the training
Better career prospects for psychologists and specialists who are already in professional life
Practical training is paid for
Ability to independently diagnose and treat disorders with disease value

disadvantage

High training costs of several thousand euros
Low pay during the practical phases
Long duration of training to the goal: Bachelor + Master + postgraduate training
Apprenticeships are limited

Conclusion

If you want to become a child and adolescent psychotherapist, you should keep in mind that your training path will be a long one by then. Your bachelor and master degree alone lasts at least five years and then there are another three to five years of postgraduate training on top. During this time, you will earn very little or maybe no money at all.

But if it is really your wish and you bite your way, then the long way is worth it. You have good career prospects, you help children and adolescents with their problems and you yourself will be able to do a varied job.

Job exchange for child and adolescent psychotherapy

Do you want to know what the demand for child and adolescent psychotherapists looks like on the job market or are you looking for training positions? Then take a look at our job exchange.