Researchers gather evidence that talk therapy works -- and keeps on working

A remarkably important event has just occurred in the world of psychology:  A leading, peer-reviewed Journal has published the strongest evidence yet that psychodynamic psychotherapy -- “talk therapy” -- works. In fact, it not only works, it keeps working long after the sessions stop.

American Psychologist December 1995

An article which concluded that patients benefited very substantially from psychotherapy, that long-term treatment did considerably better than short-term treatment, and that psychotherapy alone did not differ in effectiveness from medication plus psychotherapy.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2006

The discovery that sensory input can automatically stimulate hormonal secretions and influence the activation of brain regions involved in attention and memory once again confronts psychology with the limitations of conscious control over our actions and emotions.

Beliefnet.com Columnist
The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D., lives in British Columbia, where she divides her time between solitude and her role as resident teacher for the Contemplative Society. During the past two decades, she has visited, studied, and taught in Benedictine monasteries throughout the United States and Canada, while earning her living variously as a college professor, medievalist, editor, and parish priest. She is an oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, and a past fellow of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. She is the author of many articles and audiotapes on the spiritual life and is an internationally known retreat leader.