Example Panel Discussion
Common Language In Psychotherapy (CLiP) Project
Chair: Mehmet Sungur, Medical School of Marmara University, Dept of Psychiatry, Istanbul, Turkey
One of the main requirements for the evolution of psychotherapy from art into a science is to establish a common psychotherapy language. At present, similar procedures are given different names by different schools or the same label (name) may denote different procedures in different hands. The EABCT and AABT have recognized the need to reduce this confusion by appointing a joint task force to work on a project towards a common psychotherapy language. Panel members will outline the project. It aims to evolve a dictionary of psychotherapy procedures of therapists from different schools, with the hope of encouraging shared use of the same terms for given procedures. A common language might reduce confusion and facilitate scientific advance in the field. The project will use plain language. It will not lead to an encyclopaedia or textbook or theoretical exposition of psychotherapies. The dictionary will concisely describe terms for a comprehensive set of psychotherapy procedures in simple language as free from theoretical assumptions as possible, each with a brief case example (up to 450 words), note of its first known use, and 1-2 references. The terms will try to describe what therapists do, not why they do it (the latter too is important and could be the subject of a separate project). Regular updates of the Dictionary will be aimed at via the CLiP website that should operate shortly. Submissions will be invited of 1st-draft entries of terms to the clip task force. The Panel will describe the project’s significance and hoped-for outcome, give examples of completed entries and their authors, and how to make 1st-draft submissions and the iterative process toward their completion. Most of the Panel’s 1.5 hours is expected to be taken up by audience feedback to help shape the project even further.
