Do we need rules of action or guidelines for psychotherapeutic treatments?

In many countries, psychotherapy is increasingly influenced by standards of scientifically evaluated methods and disorder-specific approaches. Referring to the definitions of the Scientific Council for Psychotherapy in Germany (WBP) concerning the differentiation of modalities, methods and techniques, this article points out that clear distinctions between modalities and methods are increasingly vanishing; instead, the tendency, especially within behavior therapy, to integrate all scientifically based methods and techniques is prevailing. This trend runs parallel with a development away from, disorder-specific" to a, disorder-oriented" approach. Facing the fact that technical aspects explain a relatively small proportion of outcome variance in psychotherapy, research related to the quality of psychotherapists is recommended. In addition, "empirically validated psychotherapists" should receive guidelines instead of rules of action.