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How to learn therapy

Also known as Learn psychotherapy, Psychotherapy from first principles

A reading path through psychotherapy, from what it is to the main approaches.

At a glance

Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages

Why it matters

Key facts

Definition
The use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behaviour, increase happiness and overcome problems1
Why order matters
Therapies with different techniques often produce similar outcomes, which led to theories that common factors such as the therapeutic relationship drive their efficacy1
Brief therapy
A small number of sessions over a few weeks or months1
Dropout
Early termination ranges from around 30% to 60%, depending partly on how it is defined1
How big the effects are
A 2022 umbrella review of 102 meta-analyses found effect sizes for both psychotherapies and medications were generally small1

Start here: what therapy is and why it works

  1. Psychotherapy

    What it is, the main families, and how well it works.

  2. Common factors theory

    Why very different therapies get similar results: the ingredients they share.

  3. Therapeutic alliance

    The working bond between client and therapist, the most studied of those ingredients.

  4. Dodo bird verdict

    The long argument over whether all therapies really are equal.

  5. Evidence-based practice in psychology

    How research, clinical judgement and the client's own values are meant to combine.

The raw material: emotion, attachment and memory

  1. Emotion

    What emotions are and what they are for; most of the approaches below are built on an answer.

  2. Attachment theory

    How early bonds shape what we expect from people; the base of couples work and much else.

  3. Shame

    The painful sense that the self is bad, and how it differs from guilt.

  4. Memory reconsolidation

    A proposed reason old emotional learning can change, not just be managed.

  5. Window of tolerance

    The zone of arousal in which a person can feel and still think.

The families of therapy

  1. Psychodynamic psychotherapy

    The oldest family: unconscious patterns, the past in the present.

  2. Defence mechanisms

    The ways the mind protects itself from what it cannot yet feel.

  3. Transference

    Old relationships replayed with the therapist.

  4. Cognitive behavioral therapy

    Thoughts, feelings and actions as a loop that can be changed.

  5. Humanistic psychology

    The third force: experience, growth and the whole person.

  6. Person-centered therapy

    Empathy, acceptance and genuineness as the conditions for change.

  7. Gestalt therapy

    Awareness in the here and now, and the chair work later approaches borrowed.

  8. Empty chair technique

    Speaking to a person, or a part of yourself, in an empty chair.

Working with emotion and attachment

  1. Emotion-focused therapy

    Emotion as the target of change: arrive at a feeling, then transform it.

  2. Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP)

    Feeling core emotion fully, with the therapist, so it can heal.

  3. Emotionally focused couples therapy

    Couples' fights as attachment distress, and how to rebuild the bond.

Patterns and parts

  1. Schema therapy

    Lifelong patterns born of unmet childhood needs, and how to heal them.

  2. Early maladaptive schemas

    The patterns themselves: abandonment, defectiveness, unrelenting standards and the rest.

  3. Schema modes

    The parts that take over in the moment: hurt child, inner critic, coping parts, Healthy Adult.

  4. Internal Family Systems

    The mind as a family of parts around a core Self.

Acceptance, mindfulness and compassion

  1. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

    Stop fighting thoughts and feelings; act on what you value.

  2. Psychological flexibility

    ACT's target: staying present and choosing your actions while hard thoughts are there.

  3. Cognitive defusion

    Seeing a thought as a thought, not as the truth.

  4. Relational frame theory

    The theory of language and thought underneath ACT.

  5. Mindfulness

    Present-moment attention without judgement, and its place in therapy.

  6. Dialectical behavior therapy

    Acceptance and change held together, built for intense emotion.

  7. Radical acceptance

    Fully accepting what cannot be changed right now, as the first step to changing anything.

  8. Self-compassion

    Treating yourself as you would treat a friend who is struggling.

  9. Compassion-focused therapy

    Calming a threat system and an inner critic by training compassion.

Trauma

  1. Psychological trauma

    What trauma is and what it does.

  2. Post-traumatic stress disorder

    The diagnosis, its symptoms and its treatments.

  3. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder

    When trauma is prolonged or repeated, often in childhood.

  4. Trauma-informed care

    Principles for working with anyone who may have trauma: safety, trust, choice.

  5. EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing)

    Processing traumatic memories with bilateral stimulation, and the debate about how it works.

  6. Adaptive information processing

    EMDR's model of why some memories stay stuck.

  7. Polyvagal theory

    A popular account of safety and the nervous system, and its scientific critics.

ADHD and neurodiversity

  1. ADHD

    What ADHD is in adults as well as children, and what helps.

  2. Neurodiversity

    Brain differences as variation rather than defect, and what affirming practice means.

Key books and papers

  1. The Great Psychotherapy Debate: The Evidence for What Makes Psychotherapy Work

    The evidence that what therapies share matters more than what divides them.

  2. How important are the common factors in psychotherapy? An update

    The same argument in a free journal article: read this first.

  3. On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy

    Empathy, acceptance and genuineness, in Rogers' own words.

  4. Cognitive Therapy of Depression

    The manual that started CBT as a tested treatment.

  5. Attachment and Loss

    Bowlby's trilogy: the theory under couples work and much else.

  6. Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings

    Emotion-focused therapy, written for practitioners learning it.

  7. Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love

    The seven conversations of emotionally focused couples therapy, for couples.

  8. The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change

    The founding book of AEDP.

  9. Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior...and Feel Great Again

    Schema therapy for the general reader: the lifetraps and how to change them.

  10. Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide

    The clinical guide to schemas and modes.

  11. The Happiness Trap: Stop Struggling, Start Living

    ACT for the general reader.

  12. Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself

    Self-compassion, from the researcher who defined it.

  13. DBT Skills Training Manual

    The DBT skills, including radical acceptance.

  14. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

    A widely read account of trauma and the body, with its critics on its page.

  15. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

    Trauma, recovery in stages, and the idea of complex trauma.

  16. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures

    The EMDR manual by its developer.

People to know

  1. Carl Rogers

    Founded person-centered therapy.

  2. Sigmund Freud

    Founded psychoanalysis.

  3. Aaron Beck

    Founded cognitive therapy.

  4. John Bowlby

    Founded attachment theory.

  5. Mary Ainsworth

    Measured attachment styles.

  6. Leslie Greenberg

    Developed emotion-focused therapy.

  7. Sue Johnson

    Developed emotionally focused couples therapy.

  8. Diana Fosha

    Developed AEDP.

  9. Jeffrey Young

    Developed schema therapy.

  10. Steven C. Hayes

    Developed ACT and relational frame theory.

  11. Marsha Linehan

    Developed dialectical behavior therapy.

  12. Francine Shapiro

    Developed EMDR.

  13. Bruce Wampold

    Researcher of what makes therapy work.

Where the approaches train

  1. International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)

    Emotionally focused therapy for couples and families.

  2. AEDP Institute

    AEDP training.

  3. International Society of Schema Therapy

    Schema therapy certification.

  4. Association for Contextual Behavioral Science

    ACT and contextual behavioural science.

  5. EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)

    EMDR standards and training in the US.

Sources

  1. Psychotherapy (Wikipedia) (opens en.wikipedia.org)

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