Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience.
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how individuals relate to each other and to their environments.
Counseling psychology is a psychological specialty that began with a focus on vocational counseling, but later moved its emphasis to adjustment counseling, and then expanded to cover all normal psychology and psychotherapy. There are many subcategories for counseling psychology, such as marriage and family counseling, rehabilitation counseling, clinical mental health counseling, educational counseling, etc. In each setting, they are all required to follow the same guidelines.
Nossrat Peseschkian lived in Germany since 1954. He was a specialist in neurology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. Peseschkian founded positive psychotherapy in 1968 based on a cross-cultural approach; he was also the founder of the Wiesbaden Academy of Psychotherapy (WIAP), a German state-licensed postgraduate institute of psychotherapy.
The Hakomi Method is a form of mindfulness-centered somatic psychotherapy developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s.
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization which promotes sustainable forest management through independent third-party certification. As of 2006, it was considered the certification system of choice for small forest owners in Europe.
Body psychotherapy, also called body-oriented psychotherapy, is an approach to psychotherapy which applies basic principles of somatic psychology. It originated in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and particularly Wilhelm Reich who developed it as vegetotherapy. Branches also were developed by Alexander Lowen, and John Pierrakos, both patients and students of Reich, like Reichian body-oriented psychotherapy and Gerda Boyesen.
The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a professional association of psychotherapy organisations and practitioners in the United Kingdom.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is a professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists practising in the United Kingdom.
Carol Elizabeth Leader is a Jungian psychoanalyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a former English theatrical and television actor.
Gerda Boyesen was the founder of Biodynamic Psychology, a branch of Body Psychotherapy.
A licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC) is a professional who has been qualified to provide psychotherapy and other counselling services. LCPCs are trained to work with individuals, families, and groups to treat mental, behavioural and emotional problems and disorders. The main goal of LCPCs is to use counselling strategies to help people live a more satisfying life, which typically involves identifying a goal and finding potential solutions.
Equine-assisted therapy (EAT) encompasses a range of treatments that involve activities with horses and other equines to promote human physical and mental health. Modern use of horses for mental health treatment dates to the 1990s. Systematic review of studies of EAT as applied to physical health date only to about 2007, and a lack of common terminology and standardization has caused problems with meta-analysis. Due to a lack of high-quality studies assessing the efficacy of equine-assisted therapies for mental health treatment, concerns have been raised that these therapies should not replace or divert resources from other evidence-based mental health therapies. The existing body of evidence does not justify the promotion and use of equine-related treatments for mental disorders.
The American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) is a not-for-profit multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to enhancing the practice, theory and research of group psychotherapy.
In the United Kingdom, counselling is not under statutory regulation, and is overseen and supported by several organisations, none of which are officially recognised by the government.
The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) is an association of training institutions and professional associations which have their roots in established psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. They bring together approximately 2000 registrants of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy who as individuals become registrants of the BPC.
Positive psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic method developed by psychiatrist and psychotherapist Nossrat Peseschkian and his co-workers in Germany beginning in 1968. PPT is a form of humanistic psychodynamic psychotherapy and based on a positive conception of human nature. It is an integrative method that includes humanistic, systemic, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioral elements. As of 2024, there are centers and training available in twenty countries. It should not be confused with positive psychology.
The World Council for Psychotherapy is an NGO with consultative status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It was founded in 1995, has its headquarters in Vienna, and holds a World Congress every three years with more than a thousand participants.
Wilderness first aid as an established medical discipline is a relatively new phenomenon compared to the more established field of prehospital emergency medicine. While instructional guidelines for curriculum for prehospital emergency medical care have been standardized by the U.S. federal government, there are no current federal regulations defining scopes of practice for varying levels of wilderness medicine.
The British Psychotherapy Foundation, Bpf, is the successor organisation to three former long-established British psychotherapy providers and clinical training institutions which merged in April 2013. The original constituents are the British Association of Psychotherapists, BAP (1951), The Lincoln Clinic and Centre for Psychotherapy (1968) and the London Centre for Psychotherapy, LCP, (1976). It is unique in the United Kingdom for providing treatment services for children and adults in all the psychoanalytic modalities, that is of Freudian and Jungian inspiration. It is also unique in providing professional training in those modalities within one institution and is regulated by the British Psychoanalytic Council. It has charitable status. Its current associations are:
