Psychotherapy and counselling: what talking therapy is
What talking therapy actually consists of, the difference between counselling and psychotherapy, the formats it comes in, and what the research says …
Approaches
Talking therapy, mindfulness-based programmes and movement-based work, described as subjects: where each came from, what it involves, and how strong the evidence behind it actually is.
Therapy is not one thing. Under the heading sit a set of quite different traditions, some built from trial evidence and some from clinical theory, some delivered in eight structured weeks and some open-ended.
These pages describe them as subjects. They set out what each approach claims to do, where the idea came from, and — this is the part usually left out — what the published evidence supports and where it runs thin. Being clear about the second is more useful than enthusiasm about the first, because it is the thing that helps a reader ask a practitioner a sensible question.
Nothing here is a recommendation of any approach for any person or condition. Approaches that help one person leave another cold, and that is a normal finding rather than a failure.
The main schools of therapy, and how they differ
CBT, person-centred, gestalt, psychodynamic, existential and transactional analysis explained plainly — what each believes the problem is, what a …
Dance movement psychotherapy: what it is
Where dance movement psychotherapy came from, what happens in a session, how it is trained and registered in the UK, and how it differs from a dance …
Dance movement therapy: what the evidence does and does not show
The Cochrane reviews of dance movement therapy for depression and for schizophrenia both concluded the evidence was too thin for firm conclusions. …
Arts therapies in the UK, and the protected titles
Art therapist, art psychotherapist, dramatherapist and music therapist are protected titles regulated by the HCPC. What that means in practice, and …
Mindfulness: origins and what the word now means
Mindfulness came out of Buddhist contemplative practice and was reworked into secular clinical programmes from 1979. What the practice is, what was …
MBSR and MBCT: the two clinical programmes
Mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are eight-week structured programmes with different origins and purposes. …
Mindfulness: what the trials support, and where claims outrun the evidence
Moderate effects for some conditions in structured programmes, weaker effects elsewhere, and a long list of claims with nothing behind them. Also: …