To whom should cognitive-behaviour therapies be taught?

Abstract

Clinical psychologists are frequently involved in training other health professionals in empirically validated therapeutic interventions (e.g., Cognitive-behaviour therapies) which by tradition have been the domain of clinical psychologists. It is argued that to maintain treatment standards and the pre-eminence of clinical psychologists in cognitive-behaviour therapy, Clinical psychologists need to organise clinical psychology (and allied health professionals) by a system of accreditation. The proposal of accreditation is then extended to provide a way in which it could be integrated with the scientist-practitioner model in order to motivate further professional development of clinical psychologists. The system of accreditation is then evaluated by addressing the arguments frequently offered for and against the training of non-clinical psychologists in cognitive-behaviour therapy.