THE PSYCHOTHERAPISTS SKILLS REVISITED

Like many psychotherapy researchers, I have been fascinated by the rol e of ''specific'' and ''nonspecific'' (or common) factors from the beg inning of my career. For a long time it was erroneously believed that nonspecific factors required no skills on the part of the therapist wh ereas specific factors were equated with specialized training and expe rtise. Eventually, my fellow researchers at Vanderbilt and I concluded that the two terms are misnomers that have beclouded rather than clar ified the basic issues. In the end, I became convinced that therapists ' skills contribute materially to the outcome of therapy and that thes e skills, rather than being specific techniques, are much more accurat ely described as the ability to manage the complex human relationship that is the essence of psychotherapy.