Leading researchers' consensus on psychotherapy research findings: Implications for the teaching and conduct of. psychotherapy

We examined leading international psychotherapy researchers' views on psychotherapy outcome research. Participants completed a questionnaire on which they rated level of research evidence for or against various assertions about. psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Participants rated how confident they were that the assertions were supported by psychotherapy research. Strong, or relatively strong, consensus was achieved on several of the questionnaire items. Areas for which relative uniformity of opinion does or does not exist have potential implications for the teaching and conduct of psychotherapy and for the science-practice interface in psychotherapy. Additionally, consensus about psychotherapy findings can be used as a yardstick by which to measure practicing clinicians' knowledge of the research.