Thinking about therapy

Counselling psychologists commonly make use of a wide variety of therapeutic theories. This chapter briefly reflects upon the history of therapy before moving to discuss some of the many theories that counselling psychologists use to inform their therapeutic practice. These include providing introductions to what are often described as the three major forces of therapy in the Global North (psychoanalysis/psychodynamic, behaviourism/cognitive, and humanistic-existential approaches), the way that psychologists integrate different perspectives and approaches within their work, and finally two important dimensions of therapeutic thinking that pervade all the other approaches (the transcultural and social justice dimensions).