On the next generation of process research

Abstract

This set of articles offers examples of innovative and exciting trends in psychotherapy process research. We briefly review the state-of-the-art of psychotherapy research, highlighting some limitations of current approaches in the field and the pressing need to move beyond the current state of affairs. We note that the methods advocated and put to use by the authors in this issue are quite likely to lead the field in a more desirable direction. Specifically, these methods allow a more complex and contextual way to examine the process of change and relapse. Taken together, the methods proposed here come closer than previous research procedures to capturing the realities that clinicians face in their real-life interventions. For this reason, we hope that the future of process research will include more studies of this type.