Most people walking into a therapist’s office for the first time are focused on finding the right approach. Should they try cognitive-behavioral therapy? Psychodynamic work? Something else entirely? It’s a reasonable question, but decades of research point to a surprising answer: the single strongest predictor of whether therapy actually works isn’t the specific method. It’s the quality of the relationship between therapist and client.

This idea can feel counterintuitive. After all, therapists train for years in specific modalities.… Read more