How timely are the methods taught in psychotherapy training and practice?

Issues: Even though many psychotherapists consider themselves to be eclectic or integrative, training and reimbursement in the modern healthcare system are clearly oriented toward the model of distinct psychotherapy approaches. Prompted by the proposition to favor general, disorder-oriented psychotherapy, we investigate how timely distinctive methods are that are taught in training and practice. Methods: We reviewed the pertinent literature regarding general and specific factors, the effectiveness of integrative and eclectic treatments, orientation toward specific disorders, manualization and psychotherapeutic training. Results: There is a lack of systematic studies on the efficacy of combining therapy methods from different approaches. The first empirical findings reveal that a superiority of combined versus single treatment methods has yet to be demonstrated. The development of transnosological manuals shows the limits of disorder-specific treatment. General factors such as therapeutic alliance or education about the model of disease and treatment rationale require specific definitions. Conclusion: Taking reference to a specific treatment approach provides important consistency of theory, training therapy and supervision, though this does not preclude an openness toward other therapy concepts. Current manualized examples show that methods and techniques can indeed be integrated from other approaches. Integrating different methods can also be seen as a developmental task for practitioners and researchers which may be mastered increasingly better with more experience.