Psychotherapy in Iran: Problems and Prospects

Psychotherapy training is carried out through supervision. This training occurs in three ways of traditional, on-line, and video-taped, in the forms of theory-based, developmental, and integrative models. Universities and private institutes both provide psychotherapy training. The establishment of Iran Psychology Organization is a time that historically separate different movement of psychotherapy training and services. Competitions between psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as between psychologists from two different ministries back ground, lack of clear criteria and appropriate standards of the Iran Psychology Organization for quality and training evaluation of individual, limitation of psychotherapy training in universities, and non-systematic psychotherapy training in the private centers all are some of the problems that Iran psychotherapy is facing. Considering the standards, not the place of psychotherapy training, establishing independent and non-profit organizations for the accreditation of psychotherapy training, and the development of private centers affiliated with international psychotherapy training institutions can be potential solution to promote the quality and development of psychotherapy in Iran.