Psychodynamic Therapists' Reservations About Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Implications for Training and Practice

¹ University of California, San Francisco; University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; and California School of Professional Psychology, Alameda, California.

Dr. Persons, Center for Cognitive Therapy, 5435 College Avenue, Oaldand, CA 94618.

This article offers suggestions for psychodynamic therapists who encounter obstacles while learning cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or working in settings where CBT is used. The authors discuss three types of questions commonly raised by psychodynamic therapists about CBT. These concern 1) the therapeutic relationship, 2) the focus of therapeutic interventions, and 3) the depth of change. To help psychodynamic therapists overcome obstacles to learning CBT, the authors focus on similarities between psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral models in these three areas. They also examine differences between the models, including differences dependent on value judgments, and offer suggestions for making productive use of differences between the models in the training process.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K.-L. Cassidy The Adult Learner Rediscovered: Psychiatry Residents' Push for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Training and a Learner-Driven Model of Educational Change Acad Psychiatry, September 1, 2004; 28(3): 215 - 220. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]