23/07/2025
Will psychodynamic therapy survive in the long run? Maybe, maybe not. Some years ago, Winfried Rief and colleagues published a paper on current trends in psychotherapy research, finding that psychodynamic therapy over time was decreasing in proportion to the overall field. "Third wave treatments such as mindfulness increased their representation in research, while the part of psychodynamic treatments decreased."
In this interview with Ellen Driessen, published in the third issue of the Journal of Contemporary ISTDP, Ellen discusses the need for dynamic clinicians to do more empirical research in order to keep psychodynamic therapy alive. In the past, Ellen has done some very important empirical research showing the efficacy of dynamic therapy in the treatment of depression, including a landmark non-inferiority RCT study in the Netherlands. In the interview, Ellen specifically notes that dynamic therapy might be more effective than other treatments for depression with a duration longer than one year. Maybe this is a path where psychodynamic therapy can find a future? The interview with Ellen is filled with signs that psychodynamic therapy research is alive and kicking. Will psychodynamic therapy survive in the long run? Of course it will.
"In the end, what you’re trying to do is improve the treatment for the 300 million people worldwide who suffer from depression. Of course this is a long term aim, but in the end, that is what you’re trying to help accomplish, right?"
You can read about this and more in the print version of the third issue! Subscribe here: https://www.istdpjournal.com/buy-subscribe/
(Rief, W., Kopp, M., Awarzamani, R., & Weise, C. (2022). Selected trends in psychotherapy research: An index analysis of RCTs. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 4(2), e7921.)
