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Most mental health professionals spend the majority of their time practicing psychotherapy. Unfortunately, no one has provided a definition of psychotherapy that satisfies all practitioners. One influential definition of psychotherapy has been offered by Raymond Corsini (2005), an expert in helping others:

Psychotherapy is a formal process of interaction between two parties … for the purpose of amelioration of distress in one of the two parties relative to any or all of the following areas: cognitive functions (disorders of thinking), affective functions (suffering or emotional discomforts), or behavioral functions (inadequacy of behavior)…. The therapist [has] some theory of personality’s origins, development, maintenance and change along with some method of treatment logically related to that theory and professional and legal approval to act as a therapist.

According to this definition, psychotherapy is an interpersonal process. Therapy must involve interactions between at least two individuals: a therapist and a client. The therapist can be any professional who has specialized training in the delivery of mental health services. Therapists can include psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers; however, therapists can also include paraprofessionals who have received training and supervision in the use of psychosocial interventions (Hill, 2020).

The therapist uses a theory about human development and the causes of psychopathology to develop a means of alleviating the client’s psychological distress. The client is an individual experiencing some degree of distress or impairment who agrees to participate in the therapeutic interaction to bring about change.

The purpose of psychotherapy is to alter the thoughts, feelings, or overt actions of the client to alleviate symptoms and improve well-being. Change occurs primarily through interactions with the therapist. Specifically, the therapist provides conditions, consistent with his or her theory of psychopathology, to improve the functioning of the client.

Jerome Frank (1973) has suggested that certain factors are common to all forms of psychotherapy. These common factors include the presence of a trusting relationship between the client and therapist, a specific setting in which change is supposed to take place, a theory or explanation for the client’s suffering, and a therapeutic ritual in which the client and therapist engage to alleviate the client’s distress or impairment. Frank argues that these common factors of psychotherapy have been primary components of psychological and spiritual healing since ancient times (Frank & Frank, 2004).

The famous psychologist Carl Rogers (1957) argued that there are three necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change. Rogers developed person-centered psychotherapy as an approach to treatment that focused chiefly on these three factors.

First, the therapist must show empathy toward the client. Specifically, the therapist must strive to understand the world from the client’s perspective and take a profound interest in the client’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

The therapist must also respond to the client with congruence—that is, the therapist must show his or her genuine feelings toward the client and avoid remaining emotionally detached, distant, or disengaged. Rogers described the ideal therapeutic relationship as “transparent”—that is, the client should easily witness the clinician’s genuine feelings during the therapy session. The therapist does not try to hide her feelings or put on airs.

Finally, the therapist must provide the client with unconditional positive regard—that is, the therapist must be supportive and nonjudgmental of the client’s behavior and characteristics in order to establish a relationship built on trust and acceptance. The therapist must communicate that she values the client and will support the client’s decisions. Rogers believed that clients whose therapists provided them with these three conditions would experience the greatest benefits from treatment (Rogers, 1961).