The telephone has long been a vehicle for delivering psychological services such as referral information and crisis intervention. Recently, the use of the telephone as the primary vehicle for delivering psychotherapeutic services has been promoted. This article considers the advantages of telephone psychotherapy, especially those claimed as positive features of pay-per-call telephone lines, and finds that they may be less helpful than claimed. Telephone therapy is claimed to offer ease of access, increased sense of safety and privacy, and lower cost relative to face-to-face treatment. On the other hand, telephone therapy increases the difficulty of providing for patient safety in crisis situations, increases risks to privacy, and may ultimately be more expensive than conventional psychotherapy. In addition, serious questions have been raised about the degree to which effective treatment can be carried out without direct experience of the other person in the encounter and without a specifically designated and designed location in which to carry out treatment and how the best interests of the client can be served.No contemporary psychologist can function without the telephone; although not unique in the current array of telecommunication devices, the telephone is a particularly persona], direct, and ubiquitous communication vehicle. The telephone has long been professionally acceptable as a tool for answering initial inquiries, scheduling, and managing crises; however, professional consensus judges telephone contact to be no substitute for direct, face-to-face interchange between therapist and client. Should this judgment be challenged? In an era that emphasizes access to service and immediacy of response, perhaps it is time to consider psychotherapy by telephone as a viable mode of service delivery. Certainly, many therapists have experienced pa-LEONARD J. HAAS received his PhD in clinical psychology from the

No abstract

No abstract

Supervision of psychotherapy is a complicated responsibility because the supervisor's commitment is divided between supporting the growth of the student and protecting the welfare of the client. The phenomenon of the treatment relationship can be obscured by parallel processes in the supervision, and different approaches to supervision are required for students with varying degrees of technical preparation and personal readiness. A new developmental model of supervision is proposed which integrates supervisory concerns about the course of treatment with the personal educational needs of the therapist.Clinical supervision can be a dynamic, exciting, and challenging experience for its practitioners and recipients; it can also be frustrating, empty, or hurtful in certain circumstances. One might say of clinical supervision what has been said of being a parent-that one learns how to do it on the job. As parent or as supervisor, however, one can make the mistake of assuming that the job is simple and straightforward, when in fact a multitude Requests for reprints should be sent to

Practice guidelines represent a useful approach to facilitate the delivery of evidence‐based mental health care. In this article, we detail group psychotherapy practice guidelines developed by the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA). Combining the research literature with expert consensus, the AGPA has created a resource that should prove useful for psychotherapists, administrators, and patients. We illustrate the guidelines through a series of clinical dilemmas and challenges. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 64: 1–23, 2008.