How to Spot Hype in the Field of Psychotherapy: A 19-Item Checklist

How can consumers of psychotherapies, including practitioners, students, and clients, best appraise the merits of therapies, especially those that are largely or entirely untested? We propose that clinicians, patients, and other consumers should be especially skeptical of interventions that have been substantially overhyped and overpromoted. To that end, we offer a provisional "Psychotherapy Hype Checklist," which consists of 19 warning signs suggesting that an intervention's efficacy and effectiveness have been substantially exaggerated. We hope that this checklist will foster a sense of healthy self-doubt in practitioners and assist them to become more discerning consumers of the bewildering psychotherapy marketplace. This checklist should also be useful in identifying the overhyping of well-established treatments. Public Significance Statement Sizable pockets of the psychotherapy field are replete with exaggerated claims of efficacy and effectiveness. We provide a 19-item checklist of warning signs designed to help practitioners and others with the task of identifying psychotherapy hype. This provisional checklist should also help to nurture critical thinking, healthy self-doubt, and intellectual humility in the selection and promotion of psychotherapeutic interventions.