Jaeken, Marine <br/><br/>
What Determines the Efficacy of Psychotherapy? A Brief Scientific Update 

 -  2015.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> The efficacy of psychotherapy has interested researchers since the mid-twentieth century (Luborsky, Rosenthal, Diguer, Andrusyna, Berman, Levitt, Seligman, Krause, 2002). The aim of the present article is twofold: Firstly, to give an overview of some of the most important current conclusions within the field of Psychotherapy Outcome Research, and secondly, to discuss the relevant implications for practitioners. The authors therefore present evidence for the conclusion that, contrary to the efforts of multiple research projects to prove that one type of therapy is superior to others, different types of psychotherapy appear to produce comparable amounts of therapeutic change in clients. Next, potential explanations for this equivalence phenomenon are reviewed, entailing a focus on the importance of so-called common factors (factors shared by all the different schools of psychotherapy that are responsible for therapeutic change). Finally, the practical implications of these findings will be discussed, including the importance for practitioners of integrating skills common to all kinds of psychotherapies within their basic therapeutic framework, and combining them with the techniques specific to their particular approach.