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Leader Health

We must treat therapy with scientific rigour to see if it works

The number of people seeking psychotherapy is on the rise, but the field has long been seen as unscientific. It is time to approach it with the same diligence as we do other treatments

12 April 2023

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LIFE. Not one of us gets through it without an emotional battle scar or two. And given the strange times we have been living through recently, it is hardly surprising that the number of people seeking therapy for everything from work-related stress to anxiety, depression and trauma has skyrocketed. This raises important questions about how effective therapy really is and what it does for our brains and lives.

These aren’t easy questions to answer. For a start, anyone can set themselves up as a therapist, whether they are a fully qualified clinical psychiatrist, an executive turned life coach or a teenage influencer who has read a …

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