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Psychotherapy has been practiced now for a little more than a century.

Psychotherapy is helpful for most people.

Psychotherapy is as much about acceptance as change.

"We cannot change anything unless we accept it."

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change."

"Freedom from suffering requires accepting rather than resisting reality."

“How many psychotherapists does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Only one. But the light bulb has to really want to change."

--An old psychotherapy joke

What is psychotherapy? Such a seemingly simple, straightforward question. Something those who have never personally experienced this enigmatic, mysterious process are understandably curious about. (Perhaps sufficiently curious to be reading this article right now.) But, strangely enough, it remains a profound question even for those that have at some time been psychotherapy patients or clients. And, if truth be told, this is still an open and hotly debated question even among professional providers of psychotherapy: clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, counselors, and other licensed mental health professionals who have spent years studying, practicing, teaching and, in many cases, receiving psychotherapy themselves.

Indeed, depending upon whom you ask, the definition and description of psychotherapy can vary wildly--which all contributes to the swirling cloud of confusion and controversy still surrounding psychotherapy more than a century since Sigmund Freud formulated the prototypical form of psychotherapy he called psychoanalysis. But, despite these discrepancies, according to some recent studies, psychotherapy has proven to be effective and helpful for approximately 80% of those who try it. But how exactly does it work?

One of Freud’s original therapeutic techniques was called “free association,” in which the patient is asked to recline on a comfortable couch and say out loud whatever thought, memory, emotion or image comes to mind in the........

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