Future of psychotherapy in the NHS: Psychotherapists require more than evidence based services to be recognised as professionals

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7464.514-a

BMJ 2004;329:514 (28 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7464.514-a

Letter

Future of psychotherapy in the NHS

Psychotherapists require more than evidence based services to be recognised as professionals

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Goldbeck-Wood and Fonagy said that one of the keyobstacles for psychotherapy has been a conflict of cultures.¹Differences in the training of psychotherapists also have akey role in hindering the recognition of psychotherapy as anindependent profession. In addition to the various modalitiesof psychotherapy, the huge variation in psychotherapists' trainingbackgrounds makes it difficult for anyone to understand whatthey do.

A psychotherapist can be a counsellor, a social worker, a generalpractitioner, a clinical psychologist, or a psychiatrist. Nomandatory training or regulatory bodies exist for psychotherapistsin general, and the term is often used loosely, so anyone withlittle training can call himself or herself a psychotherapist.Moreover, who practises what kind of psychotherapy is also influencedby social and political factors.^2
3 Public resources are morelikely to be allocated to psychotherapy if an individual claimis made for a specific kind of . . . [Full text of this article]