THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MIND AND BODY AND THE PRACTICE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

This course is given online. It includes 15 hours of course content.

Instructors: Dr. Martin Drapeau, psychologist and Dr. Annett Korner, psychologist.

Prerequisites: In order to register for and complete this course, participants need to be a licensed professional, or need to have completed or be in the process of completing a bachelor’s degree in human relations (for example, psychology, counselling, nursing, occupational therapy, social work/MFT, guidance counselling, psychoeducation, or related disciplines).

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

This course was originally designed for professionals wishing to meet the requirements of Bill 21 to practice as psychotherapists in Quebec. Bill 21 requires 45 hours of training on the link between biology and psychotherapy. These 45 hours must address:

• the link between mind and body
• the nervous system and anatomy
• medication

This 15-hour course focuses exclusively on the first point, the link between mind and body. If you need to complete training on the link between mind and body to become a psychotherapist as per Bill 21, this course is for you! The Order of Psychologists of Quebec has reviewed the course outline and approved this course.

If, however you are not working toward your psychotherapy permit, if you are for example already in practice, you will still benefit from taking this course. If you plan to have it count toward continuing education credits, you should however contact your regulatory body and see what their requirements are.

​GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT

The course will cover the following themes:

• Fundamental concepts in health and medical psychology, psychoimmunology, and in psychosomatic medicine and the relationship between mind and body; overview of models of health and illness, including of the biopsychosocial model of health.
• Psychological reactions to physical illness and psychosocial aspects affecting medical diseases: how medical illness affects psychological health; how emotions, thoughts, and behaviour affect physical illness; acute and chronic illness (heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, arthritis); pain; life-threatening illnesses such as cancer; health compromising behaviours
• Stress: physiological stress axis and the sympathetic and parasympathetic system; stress versus relaxation; acute, chronic stress; physical symptoms of stress, cortisol, stress reactivity, acute stress paradigm, distress tolerance, after stress effects, vulnerability factors of stress, coping with stress, stress management; moderators of the experience of stress
• Sleep: sleep physiology; circadian clock; functions of sleep: restoration, memory processing, dreaming; sleep disorders; mental disorders affected by/affecting sleep; effect of food and drugs on sleep
• Symptoms that are common to somatic and psychological disorders: introduction.
• Physiological symptoms in common mental disorders (e.g., depression, eating disorders)
• Mental disorders and psychological symptoms caused by somatic disorders, and differential diagnosis
• Specific conditions: Somatic Symptom Disorder and Conversion Disorder

ORGANIZATION OF CLASS TIME

As per the OPQ’s interpretation of Bill 21 and of the hours and credits required by domain, participants may expect to invest 2 hours of personal work for each hour spent “in class” (online). Thus, participants can expect to spend 30 hours of independent work completing assigned “out-of-class” required readings, engaging in educational activities included in the lessons, studying independently, and preparing for and completing the exams. Additional optional readings are provided for students who wish to explore the material further.

To help you reach these 30 hours of independent work, independent learning activities are integrated throughout the course. You will find assignment boxes with questions and activities after several individual lessons, as well as additional independent work at the end of each main section. These activities are designed to help you consolidate, apply, and deepen your understanding of the material while contributing to the total independent-work hours expected for the course.

This independent activity is optional. You are welcome to use the suggested time to complete it, but you may also use this time to review the material, take notes, revisit previous lessons, or study in whatever way is most helpful to you.

EXAMS 

Successful completion of this course involves passing two exams, the first after the completion of Modules 1 and 2, and the second after the completion of the third and fourth modules. Both exams consist of multiple choice, true/false, and free response questions. The exam questions are focused on content from the videos and a selection of required readings (specified at the top of each lesson). Both exams must be completed successfully. This course is graded as pass/fail. Pass is set at 60%.

Exam Failure: Students who fail an exam are required to review the relevant course material before completing a reassessment. The reassessment will consist of a different exam covering the same learning objectives and material.

The course outline

If you wish to download the course outline and send it to the Order of psychologists of Quebec or to your regulatory body for approval, you can download it here.

Important information

The registration fee includes all applicable taxes.
Our GST number is 82873 880 RT0001
Our PST number is 1218616310

Please note that we do not provide T2202 or RL8 forms.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@medipsy.ca

REFERENCES

A number of documents are available to you in each lesson taken online. In addition to those documents, you may wish to consider the following documents and resources:

References

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