The practice of psychotherapy
The practice of psychotherapy has changed in a variety of ways throughout the years; first and foremost, it has changed from having only 17,000 members to 137,000, demonstrating how the American Psychological Association is progressing in the correct direction. Previously, no documentation was required for the profession of psychology, but today a license is required to practice independently as a psychologist in all states. In reality, there are currently over 800,000 experts that are capable of billing third-party payers for mental health services. Moreover, the SAMHSA's website has 145 manual managements for 51 of the possible 365 psychological complications that are obtainable in the DSM.
The future of psychotherapy
In the future, the field of psychotherapy should put more attention to the recipients of care when it comes to their diagnosis, life situations, socioeconomic status, and race and gender among others and not dwell much on independent variable of psychotherapy. Such variables that have been wasting a lot of time are inclusive of the philosophy of treatment, theoretical edifices relating to etiology and therapy, and the procedures and methods that are in association with psychotherapy. Also, there should be consideration of the therapists as they don't get the deserved recognition in the field of psychotherapy as more emphasis is on their actions, performance, and even what they deliver but not about themselves. The therapists should learn from feedback through the engagement in the deliberate practice by reflecting on the received criticism, identification of where individual's act falls short and looking for assistance from the acknowledged experts. They should study, implement, develop and assess an improvement plan (Miller, Hubble, Chow, & Seidel, 2013). Just by having a proper certificate of practice of whichever level would not be of significance without learning directly from the field of psychotherapy.
Challenges faced by psychotherapy
The field of psychotherapy has been facing quite some challenges over the past years of its existence. First, there has been polarization among the individuals carrying out the research and their lack of ability in answering the basic queries regarding the internal functions of psychotherapy which has undermined its standing professionally in the health care world, particularly with the consumers. The second challenge is the high and real economic pressures on the practitioners of psychotherapy as in most occasions people just dwell on the worthless debates which are not beneficial as they have no pay. If in case there was payment for the arguments, therapists would not have the financial strains, and consequently, the field of psychotherapy would be successful just like any other. Another problem that psychotherapy faces are its medicalization as forcing the clinicians in adopting the prescriptive healings may strip it of the interpersonal procedures that are relevant to its accomplishment (Miller et al., 2013). That is possible as therapy is just like an effective method that only involves a complicated and nuanced succession of swapping as opposed to the regular medication.
References
Miller, S. D., Hubble, M. A., Chow, D. L., & Seidel, J. A. (2013). The Outcome of Psychotherapy: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Psychotherapy, 50(1), 88-97.
