Addressing Health in Psychotherapy From a Community Wellness Framework: Introduction to the Special Section

This introductory article to the special section on addressing health in psychotherapy offers the Community Wellness Model (CWM) as a useful framework for addressing illness in the context of therapy at the sites of personal, relational, and collective well-being. We provide information on the prevalence of health concerns in the general public and clients seeking psychotherapy, and how health psychology intervention research largely focuses on outcomes without attending to therapeutic processes. In this introductory article, we then highlight the nine articles that comprise the following two parts in the special section: (a) Identifying What is (Un)Known About Health in Psychotherapy and (b) Focus on Psychotherapy for Specific Health Conditions and Populations. This introductory article concludes with suggestions to psychotherapy practitioners and researchers on how to incorporate the CWM when integrating health into psychotherapy. Clinical Impact Statement Questions: How can psychotherapists address health across therapeutic settings? How can psychotherapy research contribute to advancing our understanding of what cultivates change within interventions for those with health conditions? Findings: Recommendations for psychotherapy research and practice include the application of the Community Wellness Model (Prilleltensky, 2005). Meaning: We outline the importance of moving beyond a focus on outcomes from interventions for those with health concerns to more fully account for psychotherapy processes and collective frameworks. Next Steps: Psychotherapists should receive increased training on how to address health concerns more fully, including interventions that integrate personal, relational, and collective sites of well-being.