The new great psychotherapy debate: scientific integrated psychotherapy vs. plurality. Why Cognitive-Behavior Therapy is the gold standard in psychotherapy and a platform for scientific integrated psychotherapy

Abstract

In this metareview, we argue that in the era of the evidence-based health practice, cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is the gold standard in psychotherapy for several reasons: (1) it is the most researched form of psychotherapy; (2) overall, no psychotherapy has proven superior to CBT; on the contrary, if there are differences, typically they favor CBT; and (3) its theories and mechanisms of change are both the most investigated and supported in psychotherapy and the best aligned with mainstream general psychological theories (e.g., learning theories, information processing) and related fields (e.g., neurogenetics). However, there is room for improvement, both in terms of CBT’s efficacy/effectiveness and in terms of its underlying theories/mechanisms of change. It is argued that a movement towards an Integrative and Multimodal CBT (IM-CBT) could consolidate the gold standard status of CBT and perhaps even contribute to its enhancement, based on higher standards of research-suport. Although some colleagues argue that the plurality in psychotherapy could be an option for development (i.e., by encouraging all psychotherapy approaches to follow the CBT model in relationship to the evidence-based movement), we argue for the alternative of having a scientific integrated psychotherapy. IM-CBT could serve as a platform for psychotherapy integration, thus moving the current fragmented field of psychotherapy to a scientific integrated psychotherapy (i.e., Integrative and Multimodal Psy…