Clinical Psychology

Lecture Date: 10/27/25

Common Factors in Psychotherapy 

• All aspects of psychotherapy contain therapeutic alliance 

• Therapeutic Alliance: Believing you are no longer alone (isolated) to feeling like you have a team to help you 

• Therapy is only going to work as well as your relationship with your therapist 

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 

• Also known as DSM 

• Serves the purpose of being a “dictionary” for defining mental disorders and provides standardized criteria to aid clinicians in diagnosing and understanding various psychological conditions.