Del questions whether the psychological therapies (with particular reference to the rise of CBT) together with
questions of ‘what is taken as evidence’ are both first and foremost cultural practices. The way that NICE comes
to its recommendations for the psychological therapies will be considered, with particular reference to the key
assumptions that underpin the approach to guideline development and how those assumptions have led to the current
reduction in the range of available therapies. It will also be considered whether the psychological therapies can
more appropriately focus on the integration of the cultural/historical with the empirical.


Del Loewenthal is Professor of Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Director of the Research Centre for
Therapeutic Education, at the University of Roehampton where he also convenes Doctoral programmes. He is an
analytic psychotherapist, chartered psychologist and photographer. He is founding editor of the European Journal
of Psychotherapy and Counselling (Routledge). He is chair of the Universities Psychotherapy and Counselling
Association and former founding chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy Research Committee. His publications
include Phototherapy and Therapeutic Photography in a Digital Age, Post-Existentialism and the Psychological
Therapies: Towards a Therapy without Foundations, Case Studies in Relational Research; with Richard House:
Critically Engaging CBT, Childhood, wellbeing and the therapeutic ethos, and Against and for CBT; with David
Winter: What is Psychotherapeutic Research?; with Robert Snell: Postmodernism for psychotherapist; and with
Andrew Samuels, Relational Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling: Appraisals and Reappraisals.