Wikipedia:WikiProject Psychology/Psychotherapy

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This is a page for drafting and testing potential structure suggestions for psychotherapy articles, which follows a discussion on the WikiProject's talk page.

'Orientation' vs 'Technique'

Currently, we're considering psychotherapies to exist on a continuum between 'orientation' (e.g. behaviour therapy) and 'technique' (e.g. systematic desensitization). In order to support this, we are drafting one structure for each, with the understanding that each article can draw from both as required (although no article would be required or even necessarily expected to do this).

Orientation

Current version is based on Prochaska & Norcross, 2010.

• A clinical example
  • A detailed clinical example should only be included if it's described in a MEDRS
• History
• Theory of personality
  • If applicable; this could presumably be any broader theory of the whole population, as compared to the next section which is more focused on mental disorders
• Theory of psychopathology
  • Whichever analogous term that is most used by the orientation could be substituted here: theory of problems, dysfunction, etc.
• Therapeutic processes
  • "Processes" is a dimension of the transtheoretical model (TTM), but there may be a heading that conveys the same general idea without being specific to the TTM, such as: Mechanisms
• Therapeutic content
• Therapeutic relationship
• Practicalities of the therapy
  • This includes aspects such as training, setting, number of sessions or other means of delivery, typical client populations; there may be a better term for this heading
• Effectiveness
• Criticisms
• Analysis of Mrs. C
  • This kind of differential treatment description of a shared example client probably isn't feasible for Wikipedia due to the lack of unified editorial direction
• Future directions
• Key terms
• Further reading
• External links

Technique

• Therapeutic uses or Uses (how the intervention is used, along with evaluations of efficacy, and any relevant risks and contraindications, if available)
• Theoretical mechanism / basis / model
  • Name tbc
• Technique (avoid step-by-step instructions)
• Methods of access (only when discussed in reliable sources; e.g. therapist, group therapy, online, etc)
  • Potentially this is similar to orientation's "practicalities of the therapy"
• History (e.g., when it was invented)
• Society and culture (includes legal and ethical issues, if any)
• Criticisms
• Research: Include only if addressed by significant sources. See Trivia, and avoid useless statements like "More research is needed". Wikipedia is not a directory of clinical trials or researchers. Avoid promotional descriptions of early-stage interventions.
• Key terms
• Further reading
• External links

Test articles

These are articles to trial the structure on - only make edits if you genuinely believe that the article will be improved. If not, just report back without making changes. There are more listed at List of psychotherapies

Stub-Class (rarely enough content to assess or restructure)

• Modeling (psychology)

Start-Class

• Systemic therapy (psychotherapy)
• Integrative psychotherapy
• Systematic desensitization
• Focusing (psychotherapy)

C-Class

• Behaviour therapy
• Person-centered therapy
• Psychodynamic psychotherapy
• Affect labeling
• Role-playing (not just about psychotherapy)
• Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy
• Gestalt therapy
• Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy

B+ Class (we probably shouldn't make any substantial changes to these without getting consensus at the article, but we can still read them and figure out if they would make sense)

• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

WP:FRINGE therapies for smoothing the spikiest edges. Note that they often get a reasonable amount of attention from other editors, and huge changes are rarely welcomed.

• Somatic experiencing (Start-Class)

Draft from 2008

Here are some suggestions on what an article on a psychotherapeutic system might cover.

• History:
  • Who developed the psychotherapy?
  • What was the historical context of its development?
  • In what ways has it been further developed?
• The treatment:
  • What is it? For broad paradigms like CBT, Psychodynamics: What unites all therapies of this kind?
  • What is it not? How is it different from other psychotherapies?
  • What conditions or problems is it meant to treat?
  • The typical course of therapy: How long is a therapy, how often, does it follow a specific structure
  • What does the therapy contain? Methods: Talking, free association, behavioral assignments...
  • Modality: Individual, group...
  • Outcome studies: Efficacy and effectiveness, possibly cost-effectiveness
  • Philosophical base
  • Theory: How is it meant to work? What is the proposed mechanism of change?
• Usage:
  • Who uses it? Where is it used? When was it used?
• Influence on popular culture

Style

• Capitalization: The Wikipedia manual of style says: Philosophies, theories, doctrines, and systems of thought do not begin with a capital letter, unless the name derives from a proper noun: lowercase republican refers to a system of political thought; uppercase Republican refers to a specific Republican Party (each party name being a proper noun). Following reliable sources, such as Bergin and Garfield's Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change, not even highly specific systems such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are to be considered proper nouns, and thus should not be capitalized.

Important pages and categories

• Psychotherapy
• List of psychotherapies
• History of psychotherapy
• Timeline of psychotherapy
• Category:Psychotherapy

Notes