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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Philip Barker
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The practice of psychotherapy is increasingly compromised in traditional healthcare by the pressures of economic rationalism and the demands for evidence-based practice. The diversity, which has characterised psychotherapy practice to date, risks being compromised by the narrow bandwidth of therapies which are deemed to fulfil the 'gold standard' validation criteria of the randomised controlled trials. Many of the traditional distinctions between schools of psychotherapy are no longer valid, as greater emphasis is placed on integration and the development of more eclectic approaches. Ironically, psychotherapists own efforts to discriminate schools and methods may have fostered the search for the holy grail of the single, most effective, form of psychotherapy. The author proposes that researchers need to highlight the importance of the role of the client as a co-participant in the outcome evaluation of psychotherapy, and to recognise that the discrete needs, wants and wishes of the client represents a challenge to the ideological prejudices of evidence-based practice.
Author(s): Barker P
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Journal of Psychotherapy
Year: 2001
Volume: 6
Issue: 1
Pages: 11-23
Print publication date: 01/01/2001
ISSN (print): 1356-9082
ISSN (electronic): 1469-8498
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569080120042171
DOI: 10.1080/13569080120042171
