Embracing Complexity

Embracing Complexity: A Critical Approach to Efficacy and Manualised Practices in Psychotherapy considers the implications for psychotherapeutic practice and research when forced to demonstrate ‘efficacy’ through repeatable models and manualised practices. The book discusses how manualised treatments impact the therapist and their practice with clients, challenging the notion that measuring and repeating manualised psychotherapeutic practice always moves toward best practice.

It considers the growth of manualised interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which have undergone rapid expansion and implementation in recent decades and is often seen as the gold standard of measurable, evidence-based treatment. However, manualised practices can be critiqued as reductive and failing to incorporate the complexities of the self as a whole into the therapeutic relationship, instead over relying on the reduction of symptoms relating to one diagnosis. The book considers whether standardisation in psychotherapeutic research and practice can sacrifice key therapeutic and relational elements in the name of conformity, and how training and standardisation can monopolise the psychotherapeutic space. Adopting a critical psychological approach, the book explores the current situation in psychology, showcasing the voice of different practitioners, and exploring what is gained and what is lost with the take up of manualised therapies.

Pointing out alternative paths for therapists that come from a fuller and unfiltered understanding of the psychotherapeutic space, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers in the areas of psychotherapy, critical psychology and phenomenological studies, as well as mental health professionals and trainees.