Toward a Classification of the Psychotherapies and Paratherapies:

A Perspective from Family Psychology

Abstract

　Family therapy has been the major newcomer in the field of psychotherapy. It has completed the full range of possibilities available to us after intervening with individuals, couples, and groups in need of help. At least in the USA, family therapy has grown by leaps and bounds, to the point that we have a plethora of journals, publications, training programs and institutes, professional organizations, and, of course, plenty of students in graduate social work, clinical psychology, family studies, counseling, psychiatry, and even nursing programs. It is the success story in the field of mental health and psychotherapy in the last generation (Freedheim, 1992).

　Most therapy-related professional organizations accept the master degree as the minimum educational standard for professional practice. Only psychology and psychiatry are the two mental health professions that require a doctorate as a minimum degree for professional practice. How is family psychology different from other disciplines and professions? How is family psychology different from family therapy or family sociology, for that matter? How is family psychology related to a classification of the psychotherapies and paratherapies? The purpose of this paper is to: (a) distinguish how a psychological perspective is different from other perspectives, especially related perspective, like family therapy and family sociology; (b) suggest the beginning of a classification of interventions, making some guesses about possible matchings between media of exchange and dysfunctionalities; (c) finally, suggest a possible classification of helpers.