Whatever happened to intensive psychotherapy?

Abstract

Of 163 residency programs responding to a survey about training requirements in long-term psychotherapy, more than 100 did not require that any patients be seen more than once a week. Among 41 psychotherapy protocols representing outcome-related research that were reported at an annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, the studies employing more than once-a-week treatment for 6 or more months were rare. Intensive psychotherapy is clearly on the wane in training programs and in psychotherapy research paradigms.