james.

Those are some very good questions and I'll do my best to answer them as best I can. Sorry it took me so long to reply but the medical school decided to give us a full day of hints/tips on being a successful junior doctor before we start our 'shadowing' placement tomorrow. Those definitions are basically true but as I'm sure you guessed they are very oversimplified. There is overlap in these professions - most Psychiatrists do research in the field (although this is usually more clinically orientated than the research psychologists do) and as I mentioned before some Psychiatrists become 'Medical Psychotherapists'. Although it is quite rare in the UK for Psychiatrists to do psychotherapy full-time, the GMC is starting to incorporate at least one placement of psychotherapy into the specialist training for Psychiatrists. And many Psychiatrists will do CBT as part of their work. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with the American Psychiatric profession but as far as I'm aware there are quite a few Psychiatrists who go into private practice as a Psychotherapist. I don't really know the numbers of psychiatrists compared to psychotherapists on the NHS but each GP practice usually has at least one counsellor on the staff. I think the most important thing to know about the numbers of professionals is that they are all hugely understaffed. The GP practice I was placed at before my exams had up to 10 months waiting lists to see their counsellor (this is normal throughout the NHS) and even with taking on large numbers of doctors from outside the UK, they still only manage to fill about 80-90% of Psychiatry training places. There are also major problems funding psychiatry in the UK due to the nature of socialised medicine - at the community mental heath practice I worked in last year the two Consultant Psychiatrists were told to either take a 50% pay cut or one person had to take early retirement. There are lots of types of psychotherapy such as psychodynamic (similar to psychoanalysis), CBT, CAT, family, group and many more. If you are interested I can find you a book explaining about psychotherapy? My current plan is to do my two 'foundation years' of general medicine, which should start in August (assuming I pass my exams) and then do something in the private sector - I haven't really decided yet but working for a start-up in biotech sounds like an interesting career - although that would require doing a masters degree. I hope that answers the last 2 questions. I'd be interested to hear your opinions about psychiatry / psychology and your experiences so far as an engineer? Thanks, James.

Thank you both for your posts and I completely understand what you are saying. I haven't put any personal information down yet because I am offering a psychological service on a public forum which anyone on the internet can see (not just FDR members). This may change in the future but once personal details are public it can be very difficult to remove them. I'm sure you can appreciate this. Please feel free to create a secondary email account (it only takes a few minutes) and send me a message - I will happily address any questions you may have. Thanks again, James. Thanks for the kind words, Magenta - and yes, after all the work I have put in and the promise of a guaranteed job at the end as a Psychiatrist it took a long time to reach the decision to leave Medicine. I'm just about to finish my 6th and final year of my Medicine degree (MBChB) in England and I'm going to do my 2 years of Foundation jobs before I make any definite decisions about the future. I was originally planning to become a Medical Psychotherapist but it still means doing 3-6 years of General Psychiatry training first. In the UK psychiatry is very heavily based on medications, rather than talking therapies. Psychotropic medications are usually given 1st line either as a stand alone treatment or with a short course of talking therapy as well. I don't think I could live with myself spending 3-6 years of my life doing something that I find immoral. Not to mention, there are very few positions available on the NHS for Medical Psychotherapists (a handful in each major city) and due to the financial constraints on the system, some have been told they have to go back into General Psychiatry. If I were to leave medicine and go into other types of psychotherapy it would require several more years of training to get the necessary qualifications and the 6 years I have already done would pretty much be a waste of time. Since I have been doing exams every year for the last 14 years I just want to do some actual work for a change. Not to mention it would still require me to work for the NHS, which is socialised medicine - another thing I am not keen to do. Instead I think I am going to do this part time for free and get a job and try and raise some money for Stefan. I hope that answers your question, if not please let me know and I'll try to explain it further - there is a lot more to say but I think this message is long enough as it is.

Hi J-William, Thank you for your message. I completely agree with you, and since all the sessions will be free, people can make up their own minds about my ability without losing anything. My final exam results come out in 2 weeks so if all goes well then I should be able to start then. If I have any resits then it will be a few weeks longer. I completely understand that most people who use this site are from North America (I myself am also a Canadian citizen) so there may be some difficulties due to the difference in UK and American time zones. I will however do my best to accommodate anyone who is interested. If you have any other questions please feel free to write a further post or email me at my new address "[email protected]" (Michael from FDR informed me that using the word 'counselling' may be illegal in certain areas without the proper paperwork. Many thanks, James.

Hi everyone, my name is James and I've been listening to Freedomain Radio for just over a year now. I'm in the process of setting up a free Skype Life Coaching service and would like to know if anyone from the site is interested. Just to give you a bit of background about me, I am about to finish my last year at medical school and have been working part time as a counsellor with teenagers for the last 4 years. I originally intended to become a Psychiatrist but changed my mind after spending several months working with psychiatrists in the UK and realised that most of their job seems to involve prescribing harmful medications to patients or locking people up against their will. I want it to be clear that I do not have a degree in counselling, but I wake up each day happy to be alive, I have great relationships with all my family and friends (and have removed all the negative influences from my life) and I am strong believer in AnarchoCapitalism, peaceful parenting and the non-agression principle. The sessions will be completely free (although donations to Stefan will be strongly encouraged) and if you feel that they are not helpful, then there is no obligation to continue. If you are interested, please send me an email at [email protected]