Most people who have never been to therapy carry some version of the same image. You lie on a couch, or sit in a chair, and talk about your childhood while someone nods and occasionally asks how that made you feel. It is not an image that inspires confidence, and it is not an accurate one either. Understanding what actually…

When people think about what makes therapy effective, they often think first about techniques. The specific tools a therapist uses, the framework they work within, the exercises or approaches they bring to a session. It is a reasonable starting point. But decades of psychotherapy research have arrived at a more nuanced and, in some ways, more interesting answer. What most…