The demographics of American Psychotherapists: a pilot study.

Of the professional groups from which data are available, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers do approximately 30 percent of the total number of hours of self-defined psychotherapy while primary care physicians report doing 10 percent. These figures are not truly representative of the actual percentage of psychotherapy being performed by these groups, since at least three other professions (ministry, psychiatric nursing and the counseling profession) are also significantly involved in the delivery of such services. The expansion of psychotherapeutic practice has been accompanied by an increasing ambiguity in the definition of psychotherapy, to the point that the definition appears solely dependent upon the judgement of the participants. The Commission on Psychiatric Therapies of the American Psychiatric Association is attempting to clarify psychotherapeutic practice in regard to decision trees applied to specific diagnostic categories. In order to lead the way to its utilization by all psychotherapists, two further problems need attention: (1) the demography of American psychotherapists and (2) a definition of the basic elements of psychotherapy.