ABSTRACT
The world is becoming a smaller place with an increasing connection between different countries and their relevant professional groupings. Both of the authors have a range of professional connections in other countries and are aware of the developing trends in the therapeutic professions, notwithstanding the tensions that are also present in various settings where different perspectives and related arguments are thrashed out. If we survey the ®eld of psychotherapy as a whole we can see that there are many changes occurring. Holmes and Bateman (2002) point to the increased recognition of the importance of psychological therapies, the proliferation of training programmes as well as the tightening up of accreditation requirements, and the increased insistence for an evidence base as a counterbalance to tradition and authority. They also highlight the growth in integrative approaches, for example, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), mentalization-based treatment (MBT) inter alia, all with a particular brand of integration based on an argued rationale and speci®ed training. It is clear in this developing ®eld that the single-school approach to psychotherapy is not holding up very well in the wider ®eld. These developments are, however, posing interesting challenges for research-based approaches and the production of an evidence base for practice. Barkham (2007), in a review of the different generations of psychotherapy research, highlights the current focus (Generation IV) on clinically meaningful research based on the process of psychotherapy and providing potentially considerably more integration between research and practice than has often been the case to date.
