The Arts, Crafts, and Sciences of Psychotherapy

Abstract

Contemporary training and practice of psychotherapy and the research that supports it is the subject of this review. I discuss it in the light of what I value most from my own professional training, which was, in my opinion, highly privileged by comparison with what is offered today. A minimal hoped-for outcome is that younger readers will find valuable tidbits here and there that will be useful in their own versions of psychotherapy. A maximal hope is that a few individuals who choose to maintain clinical skills as well as emphasize psychotherapy research might be encouraged to follow their instincts toward excellence. They would allow their curiosity to bloom and their work to be creative and more adherent to the rules of natural science than time allows in these days of dashboards that count funding associated with numbers of publications, grants, teaching, and service hours. Admittedly, that path less well traveled would be risky, because what truly is new takes time to develop and implement and the outcomes when research truly can disconfirm hypotheses (as distinct from fail to confirm them) are, well, uncertain.

Keywords: eclectic psychotherapy; effectiveness; mechanisms of change; psychotherapy training.