What's the point of psychotherapy?

There's a dizzying range of therapeutic approaches-but they all have one thing in common

- Huw Green

Sam came into psychotherapy during a difficult period at work. He had started to feel as if he was stagnating in his role and it was getting him down. As he approached midlife, he had reached a level of seniority that he had sought for years, but now he was starting to wonder whether this was it. It had taken him a long time to consider speaking to someone - what could they really do, in the absence of an obvious psychological disorder? Psychotherapy occupies an increasingly central place in our culture. Just as we have become inclined to understand our struggles and our sadness under the heading of "mental health", so too we have placed ever greater authority on psychotherapists. Even those without diagnoses of depression, anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder increasingly seek therapeutic support, with a recent survey finding that around a third of the population have done so.

But psychotherapy is a diverse enterprise, with multiple competing schools of thought.

Should you choose psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioural therapy, existential therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy? These come with their own terminology and ideas about human nature.