This comprehensive survey of the theories of psychotherapy looks at individual systems of therapy from the systems' theories of personality to their theories of psychopathology and culminating in their theories of the therapeutic process and relationship.

Systematic, comprehensive, and balanced, this stimulating book helps readers understand a wide variety of therapies including psychoanalytic, Adlerian, existential, person-centered, gestalt, interpersonal, exposure, behavioral, cognitive, systemic and integrative. The book provides an integrative framework that embraces both the essential similarities and the fundamental differences among the psychotherapies. The authors explore each system's theory of personality, theory of psychopathology, resulting therapeutic process and relationship. By doing so, Prochaska and Norcross demonstrate how much psychotherapy systems agree on the processes producing change while disagreeing on the content that needs to be changed. The limitations, practicalities and outcome research of each psychotherapy are also presented to bring both the similarities and differences to life.