clients, but they must accept them. Being empathic means those therapists understand the client's feelings and experiences and convey this understanding back to the client.IV. SummaryWhat is more effective then? Psychotherapy or counseling? This question has been hotly debated for decades, and research on this issue presents many difficulties. In conducting studies that compare different therapies, researchers seek to make sure that each treatment group is as similar as possible. For example, researchers may limit the groups to people with the same severity of depression. In addition, within each treatment group, researchers try to make sure that therapists are using the same techniques and are trained similarly. However, patients do not come to therapy with simple problems that fit easily into studies. Furthermore, therapists of the same theoretical orientation may vary in their techniques and in the skillfulness with which they apply them.Because of these problems, there is no conclusive answer about which type of therapy is best. Most studies have failed to demonstrate that any one approach is superior to another. Some researchers suggest that all therapies share certain qualities, and that these qualities account for the similar effectiveness of therapies despite quite different techniques. V. Conclusion Almost since the inception of psychotherapy, therapists and their clients have asked, "Does it work? Does psychotherapy help people resolve their problems, feel better, and change the way they deal with other people?" Therapists and clients are not the only ones asking these questions. In recent years, the agencies that fund mental health services—health insurance companies, health maintenance organizations, and government organizations—have increased their scrutiny of the effectiveness of various psychotherapies in an effort to contain costs.Measuring the effectiveness of psychotherapy is an extremely complex task. As...
