The profession of psychotherapy in an age of change: the UK experience

This paper explores major changes that have been occurring in the psychotherapy profession in the UK. This includes the growing number of practitioners, increasing differentiation of the services provided, growing discrimination in the demand for psychotherapy services, shifts in popularity of types of psychotherapy – e.g. the rise in counselling and the relative decline in traditional psychoanalysis, and the emerging regulatory environment. It is argued that this reflects a period of extreme dynamism and change. A dual context for this change is suggested. Firstly the dynamism of the political and economic structures in the UK that underpin the changes occurring in all professions in the economy. Secondly the broader cultural changes taking place in western societies that underlie changes in attitude to psychotherapy. Reference is made to movements from traditional to modern to post-modern paradigms and how psychotherapy relates to such changes.