Common Language of Psychotherapy

THERAPISTS FROM ANY BACKGROUND ARE INVITED TO CONTRIBUTE

to the Common Language for Psychotherapy Procedures (clp) project by the Joint Task Force of EABCT, AABCT and other interested organisations from any discipline.

Having no common language for psychotherapy procedures leads different therapists to use different terms to describe the same procedure and/or the same term to describe different procedures. This often confuses professionals and clients and hampers research. The EABCT and AABT therefore set up a joint Task Force to work towards a common language that is internationally accepted. The Task Force aims to develop an A-Z of Psychotherapy Procedures as a reference guide to encourage therapists from different schools to use the same terminology to describe their clinical procedures.

A common language would reduce confusion and facilitate the progress of psychotherapy towards becoming a science. The clp project concerns terms for procedures, not theories, while recognising that procedure and theory can be hard to unravel. It will briefly describe terms for a broad range of psychotherapy procedures in plain language. Each entry will describe WHAT therapists do, NOT why they do it. Details of the clp project are at www.commonlanguagepsychotherapy.org.

Therapists who wish to contribute can ask to submit a 1st-draft entry for their chosen term/s for a procedure from the list in the above website (or for another procedure not there) by emailing i.marks@iop.kcl.ac.uk (co-ordinator). If your submission is agreed by the Task Force as an A-Z entry, your name will appear in the clp’s A-Z as its originator.

Your request should include:

  1. your name;
  2. affiliation;
  3. email and
  4. postal addresses;
  5. phone number;
  6. procedural term/s you wish to define.

Your 1st-draft-submissions should total no more than 1100 words for a) to i) below and use the clp’s standard A-Z format in the above website’s examples giving:

  1. your term for the procedure being defined;
  2. your name/s for publication,
  3. definition of the procedure,
  4. elements of the procedure,
  5. related procedures,
  6. how the procedure is applied,
  7. 1st known use of the procedure,
  8. up to 4 references including 1st-known use, and
  9. a brief case illustration (up to 450 words).

The Task Force edits submissions to conform to the style of other A-Z entries in an iterative exchange of emails with contributors until both agree on the entry.

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COMMON LANGUAGE FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY PROCEDURES

CLP Project of Joint Task Force of EABCT, AABCT …

other psychotherapy organisations and representatives welcome

Enquiries to:
Prof. Isaac Marks
43 Dulwich Common, London SE217EU, UK
i.marks@iop.kcl.ac.uk

 

TASK FORCE MEMBERS for the EABCT:

TASK FORCE MEMBERS for the ABCT:

COOPTED MEMBER:

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  • The absence of a common language for psychotherapy procedures leads different therapists to use different terms to describe the same procedure and/or the same term to describe different procedures. This often confuses professionals and clients. The EABCT and AABT therefore set up a joint Task Force to work towards a common language that is internationally accepted.

 

  • The Task Force aims to develop a dictionary of psychotherapy procedures which can serve as a reference guide to encourage therapists from different schools to use the same terminology to describe the procedures they employ in their clinical practice.

 

  • A common language would reduce confusion and facilitate the progress of psychotherapy towards becoming a science. It will focus on terms for procedures, not theory, while recognising that procedure and theory can be hard to unravel. It will briefly describe terms for a broad range of psychotherapy procedures in plain language. Each entry will describe WHAT therapists do, not why they do it.

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