ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between science and practice in psychotherapy. Historically, science and practice have unfortunately largely occupied different worlds within the mental health fields. There have been many sources for the divide between those doing research and those in clinical practice. The science and practice subsystems within psychotherapy are each best served when they provide feedback to, inform, and influence each other. On the practice side, one has seen the promulgation of strategies of intervention that are less effective than they might be because they fail to incorporate what the research evidence shows about clients and about psychotherapy. In part, the rapprochement of science and practice represents a developmental step in the evolution of the field. The early history of psychotherapy is an account of brilliant men and women bringing their observation skills to the process of uncovering how the human mind operates and how change may be stimulated.
