The Great Psychotherapy Debate The Evidence for What Makes Psychotherapy Work [Paperback]

The second edition of The Great Psychotherapy Debate has been updated and revised to expand the presentation of the Contextual Model, which is derived from a scientific understanding of how humans heal in a social context and explains findings from a vast array of psychotherapies studies. This model provides a compelling alternative to traditional research on psychotherapy, which tends to focus on identifying the most effective treatment for particular disorders through emphasizing the specific ingredients of treatment. The new edition also includes a history of healing practices, medicine, and psychotherapy, an examination of therapist effects, and a thorough review of the research on common factors such as the alliance, expectations, and empathy.

Preface  1. History of  Medicine, Methods and Psychotherapy: Progress and Omissions  2. The Contextual Model: Psychotherapy as a Socially Situated Healing Practice  3. Contextual Model Versus Medical Model: Choosing a Progressive Research Programme  4. Absolute Efficacy: The Benefits of Psychotherapy Established by Meta-analysis  5. Relative Efficacy: The Dodo Bird Still Gets It  6. Therapist Effects: An Ignored by Critical Factor  7. General Effects: Surviving Challenges and Anticipating Additional Evidence  8: Specific Effects: Where Are They?  9. Beyond the Debate: Implications of the Research Synthesis for Theory, Policy, and Practice

I recommend this book and would advise the fully fledged practitioner to keep coming back to it; the activist campaigning for rights and more services to be inspired by it; and researchers to take stepping stones and grow from it. As a registered counsellor and psychotherapy student, it will prove useful in my current practice as well as my ongoing studies.

Andrea Lavers MBACPis a counsellor in private pl¥