A panel of 62 psychotherapy experts using Delphi methodology predicted psychotherapy trends in the next decade. The observers forecasted changes in theoretical orientations, therapeutic interventions, psychotherapy providers, treatment formats, and future scenarios. Cognitive-behavior, culture-sensitive, cognitive, and eclectic/integrative theories were predicted to increase the most, whereas classical psychoanalysis, solutionfocused theories, and transactional analysis were expected to decline. Directive, self-change, and technological interventions were judged to be in the ascendancy. Master's-level psychotherapists along with "virtual" therapy services were expected to flourish. Forecast scenarios with the highest likelihood centered on expansion of evidence-based therapy, practice guidelines, behavioral medicine, and pharmacotherapy.What might the future of psychotherapy look like? What is hot and what is not in the new millennium? Where are the growth opportunities for psychologists? As we transition from the industrial era to an information era, it is imperative that we remain knowledgeable of how changes will impact psychotherapy, psychologists, and our patients (Lesse, 1987). As we move through the dawn of the new millennium, it is advantageous to reflect on where psychotherapy is heading.Every 10 years, starting in 1980 (Norcross, Alford, & DeMichele, 1992; Prochaska & Norcross, 1982), we have conducted a Delphi poll on the future of psychotherapy. The 36 experts in the initial poll anticipated a variety of changes in psychotherapy, such as the shift in theoretical orientation from psychoanalytic to cognitive-behavioral and the replacement of long-term therapy with briefer therapy. Their optimistic forecasts included an increase in female and minority therapists, accelerated services to underserved populations, coverage under national health insurance, and standard implementation of peer review. The 75 experts in our second Delphi poll, 10 years later, opined that self-help groups and social workers would proliferate and that the proportion of psychotherapy provided by psychiatrists would diminish. The results also predicted the centrality of program accreditation, psychotherapists becoming specialists rather than general practitioners, and mandatory certification/licensure of master's-level mental health professionals. Although not without erroneous predictions (such as coverage under national health insurance), these studies have highlighted core forces that gradually but persistently shape the face of psychotherapy.This updated and expanded study was designed to garner expert consensual predictions on psychotherapy during the next decade. What will the face of psychotherapy look like in the year 2010?

Psychotherapy membership to provide a contemporary portrait of psychologists conducting psychotherapy and to chronicle historical trends. Five hundred thirty-eight psychologists (57% response rate) completed a questionnaire in summer 2001 regarding their demographic characteristics, professional activities, theoretical orientations, and career experiences. The results point to an aging and increasingly diverse membership that continues to be employed primarily in private practices (66%) and university settings (14%) and that continues to embrace eclectic/integrative (36%), psychodynamic (21%), and cognitive (16%) orientations. Professional activities have remained quite similar across the past 20 years, with the exception of a notable decline in personality and projective testing.

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