Experimentation and Innovation in Psychotherapy

After a long period of relatively slow change and development, the practice of psychotherapy entered a phase of vigorous experimentation in the 1960s. Greatly increased public recognition of the role of psychological approaches has brought about a dramatic upsurge of demand for mental health services on the part of broader segments of the population than ever before. Many kinds of people now seek aid, and display a greater variety of symptoms and life problems than are recorded in the earlier ca