It is a troubling time to be a therapist. Despite decades of powerful evidence that psychotherapy works, and tremendous advances in both policy and technology making therapy available to more of those who need it, the number of people actually going to therapy is flat or even declining. While training to be a therapist continues to get more expensive, therapists’ salaries aren’t even keeping up with inflation.
Saving Psychotherapy addresses some of the troubling realities behind these truths. Most therapists are never told that there is strong data to suggest:
- The field avoids claiming specific values, leaving clients uncertain about the kind of guidance and support – if any – they will receive.
- The modern training process for therapists rewards wealth much more than ability.
- Many therapists express an open hostility to science and knowledge, even when it supports our work.
- There is little accountability for therapists to ever prove that they know what they’re doing.
- Therapists are generally uninvolved in public debate, freely giving up their roles as society’s experts on mental health and positive change.
Psychotherapy deserves a much brighter future than the one we’re on track for. And the first step toward getting that brighter future is for individual therapists at all career levels to take personal responsibility for it. Saving Psychotherapy describes how you can do just that.
In this data-driven, unflinching, and ultimately optimistic look at the state of psychotherapy today, you will learn simple steps any therapist can take to make your practice more reputable and successful — while improving the health and reputation of the entire field.
Excerpts
To read brief selections from Saving Psychotherapy, check out the following excerpts:
- Licensing exams get a failing grade, published here at Psychotherapy Notes
- The rising tide of student debt, published in Family Therapy Magazine, Jan/Feb 2015 (p. 26-30)
How to order Saving Psychotherapy
Order Saving Psychotherapy in paperback or Kindle format on Amazon.