The American Journal of Psychotherapy is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal published quarterly by the American Psychiatric Association. Begun in 1947 by the Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy, The American Journal of Psychotherapy provides a forum for advancing the theory, science, and clinical practice of psychotherapy, publishing articles that expand the understanding of psychotherapies, especially in the domains of efficacy, process, education, and practice.
The journal publishes empirical papers on psychotherapy outcomes, process, measurement, and education. Maintaining a strong clinical focus, it welcomes case reports, review articles, and training tools that will guide and shape clinical practice.
To engage readers on the most urgent psychotherapy-related questions of the day, The American Journal of Psychotherapy invites a broad range of perspectives from all psychotherapy disciplines. Maintaining a strong clinical focus, it welcomes case reports, review articles, and psychotherapy tools that will guide and shape clinical practice.
Devoted entirely to psychotherapy, The American Journal of Psychotherapy provides authors and readers the opportunity to engage fully in pressing psychotherapy issues such as defining core elements of psychotherapies, dissemination of evidence-based practices, scaling best practices for expansion to larger populations, understanding mechanisms of change, and evaluating best practices for psychotherapy training and supervision.
In addition to regular articles, reviews, and brief reports, The American Journal of Psychotherapy will include
- Clinical Case Discussions – Disguised accounts of psychotherapeutic treatments of actual patients who present interesting problems or opportunities for an exploration of ideas that may help to advance the practice or understanding of psychotherapy. Clinical case discussions go beyond simple case reports by using the case material to illustrate an important theoretical, clinical, or conceptual issue. Examples include case formulations of clinical material as seen through contrasting psychotherapeutic lenses or a discussion of cultural issues raised by a course of psychotherapy.
- Psychotherapy Tools – Descriptions, reviews, or illustrations of the technical aspects of psychotherapy practice that can be used to improve or evaluate psychotherapeutic treatments. Examples include an overview of adherence measures employed to validate specific psychotherapies, a description of a novel intervention with case vignettes to illustrate salient clinical points, and a critique of distance-learning strategies for psychotherapy training. Psychotherapy Tools conclude with at least 5 bulleted recommendations, based on the article’s content, that can be used to directly inform psychotherapy practice, training, or evaluation.
The American Journal of Psychotherapy inclusively addresses topics across treatment modalities (individual, group, family, technology-enabled), age groups (children, adolescents, midlife, late life), genders (binary, gender non-conforming), races and ethnicities, and diagnoses. The journal serves the international community by curating a vibrant, pluralistic, dialogue about psychotherapy that ultimately will inform clinical care.
To visit the American Journal of Psychotherpy online, please visit psychotherapy.psychiatryonline.org