Possible Negative Effects of Psychotherapies

Any treatment that has the potential to be useful could also have harmful effects on patients. All psychotherapy approaches should take this issue into consideration. Although there is no direct intervention to the physical integrity of the patient, this does not mean that the psychotherapy techniques, psychotherapists or psychotherapy itself, do not have enough power to be harmful to the patient. Because of that, psychotherapists should be aware of “do not harm” principle. There are many studies reporting the efficiency and effectiveness of psychotherapy in the literature. But not many study focused on possible negative effects of psychotherapy. On the other hand, there are increasing numbers of theoretical and practical studies about this issue. In this review, efficiency and effectiveness studies on psychotherapy, the possible definition of negative effects of psychotherapy, sources of these negative effects and intervention to this process have been discussed.