The APM e. V. Basic Psychosomatic Care course consists of 10 seminars, each comprising 2 hours of theory and 3 hours of verbal intervention, as well as 6 Balint group sessions of 5 hours each.
The theoretical component covers the following topics:
- What is Basic Psychosomatic Care? History and provisions of the Psychotherapy Guidelines. The rationale for its necessity based on the nature and prevalence of the disorders and its objectives (recognition of psychogenic disorders, establishing a shared understanding of the illness between physician and patient, and deciding on the necessary course of action).
- General Psychosomatics: Affects (anxiety, guilt, shame, envy) and their significance for pathogenesis. Conflicts (conscious and unconscious) and psychodynamics. Models of the development of psychological disorders. Model of psychological regulation. Defense mechanisms.
- Major groups of psychological disorders: neuroses, somatoform disorders, psychosomatic disorders, and somatopsychic disorders. Development, recognition, and psychodynamics. Treatment at the various levels of care.
- Depression and anxiety disorders. Symptoms and etiology. In particular, their psychodynamics and the identification of depressive and anxiety-neurotic modes as a basis for understanding somatization disorders.
- The current classification of what was formerly referred to as hysteria and the identification of the hysterical mode as a basis for understanding conversion disorders. Narcissistic disorder and (for informational purposes) borderline disorder, as well as the identification of the narcissistic mode as a third important basis for understanding somatization disorders.
- Special Psychosomatics: Somatization disorders; recognizing the common underlying features behind the diversity of symptoms in terms of their psychodynamics (depressive, anxiety-neurotic, and narcissistic modes).
- Special Psychosomatics: Conversion disorders and psychosomatic disorders.
- Special Psychosomatics: Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia, obesity) and their recognition in basic care. Treatment options within one's own practice and referral to specialized care.
- Interventions in Basic Psychosomatic Care: The therapeutic relationship and basic interventions in Basic Psychosomatic Care that are independent of specific therapeutic schools (supporting, clarifying, suggesting, and practicing).
- Managing somatization disorders in Basic Psychosomatic Care. Understanding the symptoms, establishing a shared understanding of the illness, setting limited treatment goals, developing a joint treatment strategy and encouraging patient participation, and managing the respective psychodynamic mode.
- Chronic pain patients: Understanding the illness using the biopsychosocial model, the relationship between chronic pain and psychosocial stress, and the significance of early attachment experiences for the clinical picture. Difficulties in physician-patient interaction. Verbal interventions, diagnostic and therapeutic principles.
- Introduction to Autogenic Training: The seminar provides an overview of common relaxation methods. Autogenic Training, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Hypnosis are presented theoretically and experienced in practice. In addition to these established methods, body-oriented acute interventions for stress/anxiety in everyday clinical practice, such as “Slowed Breathing,” are also presented.
- Introduction to Sexual Medicine; medical specialist training and sexuality; talking about sexual matters: how to initiate conversations with patients; principles and areas of sexual history-taking; sexual counseling and sex therapy; overview of sexual disorders, with sexual dysfunctions as the main group; the couple dimension; deepening competence in sexual medicine.