What Psychotherapy Means Today

What’s the Latest Development?

While psychotherapy has become more evidence-driven since the days of Freud, some therapists lament a national healthcare system which restricts access to the latest and most effective talking cures. In Perspectives on Psychological Science, two psychotherapists write that we need “to rethink the current mental health system in order to make adequate treatment available and accessible to all who need it.” All levels of mental health care need more attention, they say, from the prevention to intervention stage of the treatment process. 

What’s the Big Idea?

Alan Kazdin, the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology at Yale University, believes that we must acknowledge a basic truth—all of our progress and development in evidence-based psychotherapy has failed to solve the rather serious problem of mental illness in the United States. And while changing the American healthcare system is never an easy task, there are some early signs of hope: “The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has already developed and implemented new and innovative programs to address the mental health of its veterans.”