FIGURE 15.4 Psychotherapy Versus No Treatment This graph depicts the rates of improvement for more than 2,000 people in weekly psychotherapy and for 500 people who did not receive psychotherapy. As you can see, after only eight weekly sessions, more than 50 percent of participants receiving psychotherapy improved significantly. After the same length of time, only 4 percent of participants not receiving psychotherapy showed “spontaneous remission” of symptoms. Clearly, psychotherapy accelerates both the rate and degree of improvement for those experiencing psychological problems.

Source: Data from McNeilly & Howard (1991).