Being a psychiatry trainee necessitates multitasking. Keeping a balance between work, studies, self-development, personal life, hobbies, responsibilities, struggles, self-doubts, victories and losses. It is always interesting, exciting, sometimes exhausting and fearful, but never boring.
In this busy schedule, it is difficult to find time for additional education. I was very glad to participate in the competition for the Beck Institute’s CBT online course. The competition was organized by the EFPT Psychotherapy working group during the EFPT Forum in Istanbul.
Online education gives the freedom to choose where, when and how much time to spend on studying. With modern technology, it is possible to learn new things while sitting with a phone on the bus in the traffic jam or sipping a double cappuccino in a cozy cafeteria with your laptop.
My expectations from this CBT course were influenced by my previous experience with online courses. However, to my great surprise, all these expectations were exceeded!
I would like to emphasize a high quality of this course. The excellent quality of video content and technical side made me feel like it was a one-to-one dialogue with a lecturer. It is important to note that despite being a non-native English speaker, it was easy to understand the course thanks to the clear pronunciation of the lecturer. I would like to thank the support team, which does a wonderful job. They were helpful and supportive in solving any technical issues.
The course is well-structured with clear agenda. This transparent and structured approach not only helps with learning new things faster but also to retain the acquired knowledge.
The content is wide in breadth and diverse. There is a wonderful opportunity to learn from the interviews with Aron Beck about the origins of CBT. Also one can study the theoretical parts through lectures with Dr Judith Beck and gain a view of CBT concepts through animations. One can see fully debriefed role-plays, as well as observe round table discussions about real case issues with faculty members. There is a fully packed library with useful resources and selected researches. One can ask questions and share your experience with faculty members and peers. The forum, where everyone shares their experiences, ideas and questions, made me feel a part of a big community.
The course is oriented to practice. It is a real pleasure to see how the knowledge and skills I gained could be used daily in my clinical work with patients for reliable results. CBT focuses on solutions, encouraging patients to challenge distorted cognitions and change destructive patterns of behavior.
I would like to thank the Beck Institute and EFPT members for this wonderful opportunity to learn CBT online. I highly recommend this course for everyone who is interested in CBT and would like to learn it!
Best wishes
Olga Sidorova