Beyond the approaches: tendencies in Clinical Psychology that transcend theoretical barriers

Abstract

The exert of Clinical Psychology can be found in the middle of plurality and diversity, both of practices and theories. This paper presents the context in which the contemporary development of this discipline elapses, emphasizing that the approach barriers have been tried to be blurred almost as soon as they appeared. This is why it is a mistake to educate the students in the mutual exclusion of theoretical approaches (namely psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic/existential, systemic, etc.). An introduction about the ‘approaches problem’, and certain considerations about the threat of pseudoscience are provided, to continue with a review of some tendencies that, in the frame of science, transcend the theoretical barriers in which plenty of times psychology students are trained. The concepts of transtheoretic and transdiagnostic, evidence-based treatments and practice (EBTs and EBP), and some techniques and models that meet these characteristics. The application of complexity theories and complex epistemology into Clinical Psychology are briefly discussed.