Psychotherapy, traditionally psychiatry's Cinderella treatment, has finally reached the consciousness of mental health policy makers. The trend started with the 1996 NHS Strategic Review, Psychotherapy Services in England.1 This set out a programme for coordinated, evidence based, comprehensive, safe, and equitable provision of psychotherapy—and pointed to the gap between these ideals and current reality. A sister publication, What Works for Whom? summarised the evidence for psychotherapy “best buys” in all the major psychiatric diagnoses.2 Then came the Mental Health National Service Framework and the National Plan, which emphasised psychological therapies as equal players alongside physical and social measures in the management and prevention of mental illness. 3 4 Most recently, the Department of Health's Treatment Choice in Psychological Therapies and Counselling provides an evidence based guideline to help family doctors and psychotherapists allocate common mental disorders to appropriate psychological therapies.