World Journal Psychotherapy: The chances to reach a better understanding of each other and to understand ourselves better in the mirror of the others are here (Alfred Pritz, President of the World Council for Psychotherapy)

Victor Makarov

Editor-in-chief of the World Journal Psychotherapy.
President of the Russian Professional Psychotherapeutic League.
President of the Asian Federation of Psychotherapy.
Vice-President of the World Council for Psychotherapy.
Prof., M.D. Ph.D.
Profession:  psychotherapist and professional counselor. Certificates: of RF physician-psychiatrist (2002); of RF physician-psychotherapist (2003), European Certificate of Psychotherapy (1998); European Certificate of Counseling (2002), physician-psychiatrist of higher qualification category, physician-psychotherapist of  higher qualification category. V.Makarov started medical practice in 1972 as a child psychiatrist. He became a doctor of medical sciences in 1992, professor in 1994, head of department of psychotherapy, medical psychology and sexology of Russian medical academy of postgraduate education in 1997, President of Professional Psychotherapeutic League of Russia in 1998. Vice-President of European Association for Psychotherapy in 1999, 2001-2003. In 2000 – President of this organization. Vice-President of the World Council for Psychotherapy from 2002. Vice-President of the Asian Federation for Psychotherapy from 2003. From 2006 - President of this. Author of more than 300 publications. Editor-in-chief of Russian journal “Psychotherapy”, editor-in-chief of “Professional psychotherapeutic newspaper”. 

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY IS IN YOUR HANDS

I am honored to declare the beginning of the work on the creation of the World Journal "Psychotherapy". The mission of the magazine is unique - it is not only to be the organizer of the universal information space in psychotherapeutic practice and science but also to become the information ground for the process of standardization of psychotherapy as an independent profession which effectiveness can be achieved through the synthesis of general scientific methods and individual creative approaches, through the synthesis of rational standards of the West and intuitive approaches of the East.
We are creating a magazine so that anyone interested in perceiving psychotherapy could find the answers to his questions in it:

• A student - on education in the field of psychotherapy.
• A young specialist - on technologies, methods and psychotherapeutic techniques.
• An advanced expert - on how the other professionals in his country and all over the world work.
• We would also like a scholar wise with experience to be able to share the results and prospects of his long-term work.

Our big 240-page magazine will contain various materials on the past, present and future of psychotherapy:

• Our past is rich in achievements. However, it is rather short and, at times, it is rather dramatic.
• Our present is vast and full of facts and events that often are available only to a small group of psychotherapists in a certain country and not known to the community on the whole.
• Our future has already arrived. It's unbelievable and will eхceed our boldest expectations.

It is important that information on many conferences and other events uniting psychotherapists of all continents should be collected together. It is important that the professional community should become aware of the achievements of each researcher, of each expert who wish to summarize and share his experience with the others.

Psychotherapy lives on and develops being separated into different modalities and method. The number of modalities is constantly growing. They would amount to tens of thousands if they were to live long. It never happens. Modalities appear, make the course of life, find and lose supporters and followers, and vanish. Often, the life span of a modality is shorter than the life of its author, shorter than a professional life of one generation of experts.

A question arises on how the wealth of achievements of certain methods in psychotherapy, modalities and all the latest they bring are preserved. How do they gain immortality? Unfortunately, at times they get none. It is particularly true for those modalities which leaders zealously guard their boundaries, keep an eye on the purity of their ranks and identity of their supporters and followers.  Such closeness works against them. Is there a way out?

The first one is to publish materials on numerous modalities in one edition. Our magazine is meant to be such edition.

The second way out might be the creation of integrative versions of psychotherapy. Such versions that would absorb all the best and original that has already been created and will be created by modalities. It will allow to develop psychotherapy, will allow to keep all achievements of all its modalities. It's important to point out that all integrative versions of psychotherapy are capable of developing and do develop at the expense of their own resources, namely, those that appear within the integrative modalities.

The experience of certain countries in national regulation of psychotherapy appears to be important as well:

• regulation by the state authorities;
• regulation by means of public professional organizations;
• regulation by means of paying for psychotherapists’ work and by other means of state and public regulation of our specialty.

This kind of information will find its place on the pages of our magazine.
We will also have to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of common models in psychotherapy. We will try to find out application of which model seems to be most effective for these or those conditions. Several of those models are developing in the world depending on the training and professional orientation of specialists in psychotherapy.

Our professional training differs considerably from the professional training of other specialists. Their training consists of two main parts: theory and practice, whereas personal therapy plays the bigger and the most crucial part in our training.

Actually, everything begins with the personal therapy. It leads to the fact that professional psychotherapists differ from the others by being able to study their personal problems, by getting to know the boundaries of their own personality. It's quite important, even obligatory. On the other hand, our profession attracts people with obvious personal problems and even with personal misbalances and disorders. Is he an effective, congruent psychotherapist, a sound harmonious personality, or a cured patient, or, maybe, a wounded healer?

There is another aspect to a professional model. One of its extreme versions is when psychologists, doctors and social workers deal with psychotherapy; and the second similarly extreme version is when psychotherapy is a separate profession and professional psychotherapists deal with it. We'll have to discuss this and many other ways of psychotherapeutic help and to find out which variant is better and more effective and in what conditions.

We'll have to discuss the interaction and possible penetration of psychotherapy and traditional practices and the technologies of religious confessions as well. This major process is marching all over the world. It has its own peculiarities in each country. Mutual enrichment will yield the big result.

Psychotherapy is quite a new specialty, it is living through turbulent periods of its formation and being split into numerous methods it rather needs understanding. All seven known models of modern psychotherapy will find their coverage on the pages of our magazine:

• Achievements of medical model of psychotherapy, which plays an increasing role in treatment and prevention of many illnesses, will be presented.
• Psychological model dealing with overcoming unsuccessfulness and training in successfulness, with solving psychological problems of a healthy person.
• Pedagogical model of psychotherapy dealing with the process of teaching and upbringing, psychotherapeutic harmonization of families and groups of people.
• Philosophical model where psychotherapy is a form of world outlook, a variant of secular humanism looking for and finding answers to the sense of life and death.
• Social model where psychotherapists work with big communities and society of the countries as a whole.
• Esoteric model where psychotherapy studies the subtleties of Man's spiritual life.
• Eclectic model in which elements of various models are brought together.

With your participation, our world magazine will undoubtedly contribute to a better understanding of psychotherapy and will give another impulse to its further development!

Victor Makarov

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