Current Psychotherapies

Abstract Psychotherapy cannot be defined with any precision, and it is not entirely clear when a supportive conversation becomes counseling or when counseling becomes psychotherapy. Raymond Corsini (1914–2008), until his recent death one of the world's leading psychotherapy scholars, defined psychotherapy as follows: Psychotherapy is a formal process of interaction between two parties, each party usually consisting of one person but with the possibility that there may be two or more people in each party, for the purpose of amelioration of distress in one of the two parties relative to any or all of the following areas of disability or malfunction: cognitive functions (disorders of thinking), affective…