Contributions of Systemic Research to the Development of Psychotherapy

Abstract

Compared with its early decades at the beginning of the twenty-first century, psychotherapy has less urgent needs to legitimate its effectiveness in general but is confronted with other challenges concerning the development of the profession, the question of how research should be realized and how the effectiveness of treatments can be optimized. Other challenges concern the development and dissemination of psychotherapy in health-care systems and the understanding of the mechanisms of change. The points I will bring up for discussion refer to our knowledge on the field as represented in contemporary conferences and textbooks (e.g., Duncan, Miller, Wampold, & Hubble, 2010; Lambert, 2013; Wampold & Imel, 2015): 1. Psychotherapy works on the average, but not for every client. There is a considerable number of nonresponders, deteriorations, or not sustainable effects. One of the consequences could be optimized and tailored treatments for the individual. 2. Psychotherapy works, but we do not know how, or in other words, we have many concepts on this (each therapeutic confession has its own), but no approved and generalizable models, may it be on the level of neurobiological or psychological mechanisms (Kazdin, 2009).