Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 Module 
50 
Psychotherapy: Humanistic, Interpersonal, and Group Approaches to Treatment 
561
In short, converging evidence allows us to draw several conclusions about the 
effectiveness of psychotherapy (Strupp & Binder, 1992; Seligman, 1996; Goldfried & 
Pachankis, 2007):
• For most people, psychotherapy is effective . This conclusion holds over different 
lengths of treatment, specifi c kinds of psychological disorders, and various 
types of treatment. Thus, the question, “Does psychotherapy work?” appears 
to have been answered convincingly: It does (Seligman, 1996; Spiegel, 1999; 
Westen, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004; Payne & Marcus, 2008).
• On the other hand, psychotherapy doesn’t work for everyone . As many as 10% of 
people treated show no improvement or actually deteriorated (Boisvert & 
Faust, 2003; Pretzer & Beck, 2005; Coffman et al., 2007; Lilienfeld, 2007).
• No single form of therapy works best for every problem, and certain specifi c types 
of treatment are better, although not invariably, for specifi c types of problems . For 
example, cognitive therapy works especially well for panic disorders, and 
exposure therapy relieves specifi c phobias effectively. However, there are 
exceptions to these generalizations, and often the differences in success rates 
for different types of treatment are not substantial (Miller & Magruder, 1999; 
Westen, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004).
• Most therapies share several basic similar elements . Despite the fact that the specifi c 
methods used in different therapies are very different from one another, there 
are several common themes that lead them to be effective. These elements 
include the opportunity for a client to develop a positive relationship with a 
therapist, an explanation or interpretation of a client’s symptoms, and confron-
tation of negative emotions. The fact that these common elements exist in most 
therapies makes it diffi cult to compare one treatment against another (Nor-
cross, 2002; Norcross, Beutler & Levant, 2006).
Consequently, there is no single, defi nitive answer to the broad question, “Which 
therapy works best?” because of the complexity in sorting out the various factors 
that enter into successful therapy. Recently, however, clinicians and researchers have 
reframed the question by focusing on evidence-based psychotherapy practice. 
Evidence-based psychotherapy practice seeks to use research fi ndings to determine the 
best practices for treating a specifi c disorder. To determine best practices, researchers 
use clinical interviews, client self-reports of improvement in quality of life, reductions 
in symptoms, observations of behavior, and other outcomes to compare different 
therapies. By using objective research fi ndings, clinicians are increasingly able to