Aslam, S. Y., Zortea, T., & Salkovskis, P. (2024). The cognitive theory of panic disorder: A systematic narrative review. Clinical Psychology Review, 113, 102,483.

Dippel, A., Brosschot, J., & Verkuil, B. (2024). Effects of worry postponement on daily worry: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 17(1), 160–178.

Machado, S. (2024). Integrative Jungian psychotherapy for anxiety and OCD. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 64(5), 761–792.

Rubenstein, A., Duek, O., Doran, J., & Harpaz-Rotem, I. (2024). To expose or not to expose: A comprehensive perspective on treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. American Psychologist, 79(3), 331–343.

And the winner is… Arielle Rubenstein and her colleagues for their comprehensive review of the literature on exposure-based treatments for PTSD. Their paper includes historical notes about the work of Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet, and concludes that common factors such as warmth and trust are important in the treatment of trauma. According to the authors (Arielle Rubenstein, personal communication, March 20, 2025): “As trauma therapists and researchers, we have seen the power of psychotherapy that focuses on confronting traumatic memories and integrating them into one’s life story. At the same time, we know that existing exposure-based treatments are imperfect, with high dropout and residual symptoms. The inspiration for this paper was a comment in Markowitz et al. 2015, regarding their trial of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for PTSD: “patients who improved in Interpersonal Psychotherapy seemed to gain confidence in daily social interactions, gathered social support, and then spontaneously – without therapist encouragement – exposed themselves to trauma reminders”. We were intrigued by the idea that exposure may happen in more diverse ways than we think, and that much remains unknown about the mechanism and conditions under which exposure is effective. In our paper, we aimed to deepen our conceptualization of exposure by reviewing its transtheoretical history, to identify the mutative elements of exposure, and to explore the neurobiological mechanisms that may underlie exposure. Ultimately, our hope is to direct clinicians and researchers to more flexible, tailored, and scientifically grounded treatment approaches for PTSD.

Hollon, S. D. (2024). What we got wrong about depression and its treatment. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 180, 104,599.

Mende, F., Batista, J., O’Keeffe, S., Midgley, N., Braga, R., Gonçalves, M., & Henriques, M. (2024). Innovative moments with young patients treated for depression: An analysis of post-therapy interviews. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 31(1), e2896.

Porras-Segovia, A., Escobedo-Aedo, P. J., Carrillo de Albornoz, C. M., Guerrero-Jiménez, M., Lis, L., Molina-Madueño, R.,… & Alacreu-Crespo, A. (2024). Writing to keep on living: A systematic review and meta-analysis on creative writing therapy for the management of depression and suicidal ideation. Current Psychiatry Reports, 26, 359–378.

Voderholzer, U., Barton, B., Favreau, M., Zisler, E., Rief, W., Wilhelm, M., & Schramm, E. (2024). Enduring effects of psychotherapy, antidepressants and their combination for depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1,415,905.

And the winner is… Steve Hollon for his career devoted to the understanding and treatment of depression, and his recent paper on errors he has seen in the field of mental health care. The article explores the possible evolutionary foundation for depressive rumination, and posits that cognitive therapy can help clients to ruminate more efficiently. According to the author (Steve Hollon, personal communication, March 17, 2025): ” So much has changed over the last two decades with the advent of evolutionary theory and recent advances in epidemiology that much of what the field believes about depression now appears to be wrong. Non-psychotic unipolar depression is not so much a disease or a disorder as an adaptation that evolved to serve a function (solving complex social problems) and treatments like the psychotherapies that facilitate the function that it evolved to serve are to be preferred over ones like antidepressant medications that only anesthetize the distress.”

Dubruel, A., Patel, P., & Kennedy, A. (2024). The recovery from attempting suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 28(4), 1045–1057.

Knapp, S. (2024). Laws, risk management, and ethical principles when working with suicidal patients. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 55(1), 1–10.

Pemau, A., Marin-Martin, C., Diaz-Marsa, M., de la Torre-Luque, A., Ayad-Ahmed, W., Gonzalez-Pinto, A.,… & SURVIVE Consortium. (2024). Risk factors for suicide reattempt: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 54, 1897 − 904.

Pollak, O., Sheehan, A., Walsh, R., Stephenson, A., Zell, H., Mayes, J.,… & Liu, R. (2024). Assessment of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adults: A systematic review of measure psychometric properties and implications for clinical and research utility. Clinical Psychology Review, 112, 102,464.

And the winner is… Samual Knapp for his paper that provides a range of advice when working with suicidal clients. For many years, Dr. Knapp has served as expert in issues related to the care of suicidal individuals. In his most recent article, Dr. Knapp emphasizes the importance of open communication with distressed clients, the utility of informed consent as an ongoing process, and value of detailed clinical documentation. According to the author (Samual Knapp, personal communication, March 17, 2025): ” I worked for many years for the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, where, among other duties, I consulted with psychologists on risk management issues, including risk management with suicidal patients. I tried to direct them away from overly legalistic or fear-based responses and to focus on patient and public welfare as much as possible. I owe a great debt to many co-authors, collaborators, consultants, and mentors who helped formulate and clarify these ideas.”

Branitsky, A. (2024). Yalom’s therapeutic factors in hearing Voices Groups: A facilitator’s perspective. Psychosis, 16(3), 243–249.

Heriot-Maitland, C. (2024). Position paper – CFT for psychosis. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 97(1), 59–73.

Jolley, S., & Grice, S. (2024). State of the art in psychological therapies for psychosis: Family interventions for psychosis. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 97(1), 19–33.

Wang, H., Hu, N., Chai, J., Huang, W., Yang, H., Zhou, X.,… & Li, Y. (2024). The efficacy of social skills training (SST) and social cognition and interaction training (SCIT) for negative symptoms: A meta-analysis. The European Journal of Psychiatry, 38(2), 100,246.

And the winner is… Charles Heriot-Maitland for the summary of compassion-focused treatment strategies for individuals with a psychotic condition. The article highlights the tendency for some clients to become sensitized to social cues indicative of threat. The article emphasizes the role of compassion and empathy when working with clients who struggle with perceived threat from various sources. Therapists are encouraged to reduce any tendency to blame clients for their problems while empowering them to take personal responsibility for making adaptive changes.

Emond, M., Byers, E., Brassard, A., Tremblay, N., & Péloquin, K. (2024). Addressing sexual issues in couples seeking relationship therapy. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 39(1), 115–130.

Hsiang, C., Georgas, S., Tavener, M., & Campbell, L. (2024). Using family therapy in the context of autism: A scoping review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1–18.

Madden, L., & Timulak, L. (2024). It takes three to tango: Clients’ experiences of couple therapy: A meta-analysis of qualitative research studies. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 37(1), 1–24.

Spengler, P., Lee, N., Wiebe, S., & Wittenborn, A. (2024). A comprehensive meta-analysis on the efficacy of emotionally focused couple therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 13(2), 81.

This category resulted in no clear winner, as the panel of judges expressed different ratings of the nominated papers. In general, each of these articles hold value, and should be read by therapists who provide therapy to couples or families. However, there was no clear superiority of one paper over the others.

Sharbanee, J., Rauchelle, K., Nelson, M., & Gringart, E. (2024). Experiences of the change process during Emotion Focused Group Therapy. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 23 (3), 327–343.

Schlapobersky, J. (2024). From toxic bonds to healing relationships. A journey through group analytic theory and practice. Group Analysis, 57 (2), 129–160.

Südmeier, M., & Muschalla, B. (2024). Differential effectiveness of open versus closed psychotherapy groups: A systematic review. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 77, 55–70.

Wong, C., Yeung, J., Fong, D., Smith, R., Ngan, A., Lam, Y.,… & Wong, J. (2024). Effectiveness of group cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of delivery by different healthcare professionals. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 53(3), 302–323.

And the winner is… Meike Südmeier and Beate Muschalla for their systematic review of 27 research articles that found no clear superiority of close groups over open groups. Although closed groups may promote more insight, open groups were seen are more effective in encouraging changes in flexibility and activity. According to the authors (Beate Muschalla, personal communication, March 29, 2025): “The question of group therapy format effects has been raised throughout the past 50 decades. But until now, there was a lack of systematic summary on the differential effectiveness of open and closed psychotherapeutic groups. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review in order to summarize evidence on this question. From heterogenous studies, we found that: Patients benefit similarly from closed and open group therapies in terms of symptom reduction; Open and closed psychotherapeutic groups are both effective, presumably based on different effect factors; According to present state of empirical research, there is no global superiority of one group format over the other; Indication for open or closed group therapy and therapy aim must be made according to clinical needs in the single case.

Cengher, M., & LeBlanc, L. (2024). Reviewing manuscripts for behavior-analytic journals: A primer. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 57(1), 71–85.

Davies, M., Monssen, D., Sharpe, H., Allen, K., Simms, B., Goldsmith, K.,… & Schmidt, U. (2024). Management of fraudulent participants in online research: Practical recommendations from a randomized controlled feasibility trial. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 57(6), 1311–1321.

Finlay, L. (2024). Qualitative Research: the “good,” the “bad,” the “ugly”. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 14, 1–19.

Tilden, T., Solem, M., Thuen, F., Lorås, L., Stokkebekk, J., & Whittaker, K. (2024). Taking empirical evidence seriously v. 2.0 1. Journal of Family Therapy, 46(1), 89–102.

Winship, G., Scott, A., & Edgar, J. (2024). Towards a psychotherapy publishing ethics concordat. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 26(3–4), 411–427.

For this category, there was no clear winner. Several of the papers were seen as valuable, making important contributions to the field. However, the panel of judges expressed different views as to the strengths of the different articles. All five articles are recommended as useful reading for most mental health professionals.

Boswell, J., Constantino, M., Gaines, A., & Smith, A. (2024). Responding to key process markers as a focus of psychotherapy training and practice. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 6, 1–13.

Hayden, E. (2024). Reconsidering the integration of science and practice in training in clinical psychology. Canadian Psychology, 65 (3), 224–230.

Sudak, D., & Brenner, A. (2024). The future of psychotherapy training. Academic Psychiatry, 48(5), 511–515.

Zhu, P., Litherland, G., Bell, T., & Luke, M. (2024). Professional wisdom in counselor education: A consensual qualitative research. Counselor Education and Supervision, 63, 311–329.

And the winner is… James Boswell and colleagues for their article on Context-Responsive Psychotherapy Integration. The article explains the risks of a rigid overreliance on structured treatment manuals and the false belief in the value of a uniform format of psychotherapy. Instead, the authors highlight the utility of clinician flexibility and the tendency to adapt to the unique timely needs of each client. According to the lead author (James Boswell, personal communication, March 17, 2025): “Although we would not want to abandon the development of treatment protocols and their use in psychotherapy training and implementation, the status-quo approach to training and fidelity evaluations has yielded mixed findings, at best, when we examine training and patient outcomes. The crux of clinical practice is real-time decision-making that requires attentiveness to relevant and individually contextualized process markers and the know-how and skill to respond therapeutically to those markers. We should structure and focus our training on what the evidence tells us about those markers and which responses are likely to foster positive proximal and distal patient outcomes.”

Bschor, T., Nagel, L., Unger, J., Schwarzer, G., & Baethge, C. (2024). Differential outcomes of placebo treatment across 9 psychiatric disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 81 (8), 757–768.

Vybíral, Z., Ogles, B., Řiháček, T., Urbancová, B., & Gocieková, V. (2024). Negative experiences in psychotherapy from clients’ perspective: A qualitative meta-analysis. Psychotherapy Research, 34(3), 279–292.

Hansen, J. (2024). Lessons contemporary counselors can learn from the exploratory therapies. Journal of Counseling & Development, 102, 385–393.

Westhoff, M., Berg, M., Reif, A., Rief, W., & Hofmann, S. (2024). Major problems in clinical psychological science and how to address them. Introducing a multimodal dynamical network approach. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 48, 791–807.

And the winner is… James Hansen for his article on exploratory therapies and their continued relevance to the practice of contemporary psychotherapy. The article highlights the value of the therapeutic relationship and the potential utility of transference / countertransference reactions. Exploratory approaches respect the client’s personal knowledge of their own life, goals and values, while also helping them to explore life meaning as a personal goal. According to the author (Jim Hansen, personal communication, March 18, 2025): “The paper was inspired by my observation that the practice and training of mental health providers had become increasingly dominated by an ideology of symptom reduction. Because of the current dominance of a technique-oriented focus on reducing symptoms, many values, methods, and insights from the exploratory therapies have been lost and are unavailable to modern practitioners. Therefore, I wrote this paper to outline the historical decline of the exploratory therapies and to provide insights from these therapies that might be useful to contemporary practitioners. I am honored that my paper has been recognized with the Psyche Award.”

The Psyche Awards have been clustered into several common categories. However, each year, there are useful articles that do not fit into any of the established categories. This year, four articles are given an honorable mention because they may have deserved an award but simply blocked from nomination because their topic did not closely align with any of the established categories.

The first Honorable mention goes to Heidi Levitt and colleagues (2024) for their work on the Clients’ Experience of Therapy Scale. The scale included 15 questions arranged into five subscales that subtly capture the format and goals of most psychotherapy sessions. Items explore aspects of therapist responsiveness to clients during each session, client sense of empowerment generated by session discussions, and tendencies to explore habitual patterns as a means of gaining personal insight. Preliminary versions of the scale were administered to more than 600 participants, with most respondents either currently involved in psychotherapy sessions or had recently completed their treatment. The scale provides a valuable resource for novice therapists who want to gain a better understanding of the subjective experience that psychotherapy sessions can have on clients.

The second Honorable mention goes to Naomi Thrower and colleagues (2024) for their article on psychology formulation. The study included multiple steps to generate the core components that should be included in a comprehensive case formulation. A total of 109 clinical psychologists completed a series of questions about life domains that are often central to case conceptualtion and treatment planning for psychotherapy clients. The project created a list of 18 key issues that help to guide treatment plans, including the value of assessing perpetuating and protective factors, the relevance of each client’s strengths and accomplishments, and the social support network that is seen as available to help the client durings times of stress. An additional twelve issues can be used to guide the collaborative process needed for a workable treatment plan.

The third honorable mention goes to Giovanni Fava and colleagues (2024) for their paper on psychosocial factors to be confronted in medical care. The proposed model includes a comprehensive assessment within a biopsychosocial framework. Illness behavior is conceptualized in relationship to lifestyle habits and healthy behaviors. Key issues include awareness of life stressors and how they may be disrupting the emotional and physical health of a person, overloading the individual’s capacity for effective coping. The model is relevant to clients who may be struggling with tendencies for somatization, hypochondriasis, health-related anxiety, or the denial of illness.

The fourth and final honorable mention goes to Compton (2024) for his paper on Abraham Maslow’s approach to self-actualization. There can be tremendous value in learning from the historical founds of our field, and too often, the older works are neglected or forgotten. Compton reviews Maslow’s work and explores several ideas that remain relevant to contemporary psychotherapy, with a focus on self-actualization and what it means in contemporary society.

Editorial Postscript

As Editor for the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, I want to thank the ad hoc reviewers who provided their assistance during the past year: Katie Aafjes-van Doorn, Jaqueline Abate, Steve Abell, Ana Alexio, Shlomo Ariel, Murat Artiran, Allison Baier, Tim Balder, Jorden Bale, Vasiliki Baourda, Luz Bascunan, Ray Bergner, Denise Ben-Porath, Tali Boritz, Annette Bovee, Cyril Bouvet, Davide Bottaro, Morgan Browning, Ana Mafalda Almeida Bruno, Fatima Khurram Bukhari, Orr Burnstein, Eduard Carratala, Franz Caspar, Julie Cerel, Samantha Chalker, Alexander Chapman, Jasmine Childs-Fegredo, Allison Connolly, Vincent Corcoran, Rachel Crook-Lyon, Veronica Dwarika, Caitlin Edwards, Laura Faith, Dragana Favre, Daniella Fernandez, Gloria Fioravanti, Michelle Flaum, Julian Ford, Lorraine Freedle, Myrna Friedlander, Louis Gamino, Emil Genc, Farzad Ghaderi, Giac Giacomantinio, Duncan Gill, Volkum Gollum, Rod Goodyear, Robert Gordon, John Grady, Ethan Graure, Huw Green, Naveen Grover, Nina Gunnarsson, Jay Hamm, Catherine Hickey, Rolf Holmquist, Jurgen Hoyer, Maliha Ibrahim, Marco Iacono, Jeremy Jewel, Dominic Julien, Larissa Kalish, Amber Kelly, Leonhard Kratzer, Ebrahim Karbasdehi, David Kealy, Johannes Kiedling, Geza Kovacs, Leonhard Kratzer, Valery Krupnik, Jeffrey Kuentzel, Lloyd Laland, Michael Lasher, Sarah Hope Lincoln, Christopher McGovern, Caitlin McLean, Brian Miller, Daniela Mosri, Eleonari Natalini, Hamid Nejat, Lindi Nel, Randy Nobbitt, Nicole Peak, Niccolo Polipo, Bart Rabaey, Santhosh Rajan, Susan Reviere, Marta Sant, Sara Schapiro, Anna Sidis, Anders Draeby Sorensen, Orr Spivak, Tom Strong, Madeline Ward, and Vasiliki Yotsidi. The journal would be nothing without the ongoing efforts of the numerous authors, reviewers and distinguished members of the editorial board.