Teamwork for complex clinical situations in psychotherapy: Introduction to the issue.

Abstract

This in-session issue is focused on psychotherapists involved in and performing teamwork practices. Specifically, five teamwork-based psychotherapy interventions are illustrated as solutions for complex clinical situations drawing from multiple theoretical approaches (narrative, systemic, cognitive behavioral, and integrative) and applied in different health care provision settings, ranging from psychotherapy private office to a multidisciplinary oncological service. The contributions try to cover a diversity of presenting problems: separating couples, gang involvement, schizophrenia, cancer and suicidal ideation, bipolar disorder; and formats of delivery such as couple therapy supervision, family therapy, multidisciplinary team formulation and interprofessional health psychology. Three main shared coordinates underlie the diversity of interventions: (1) Considering that psychotherapy is just a piece of a broader network of interactions and meanings generated around a given problem/solution and, thus, it is part of an ecology of ideas (ecological dimension), (2) Assuming interdependence and collaboration as the best strategies to interact with professionals and significant others involved with a given problem or solution (collaborative dimension), and (3) fostering a strengths-based case formulation (epistemological dimension). The issue aims at enriching practitioners' toolbox willing to incorporate team-based interventions as part of their range of professional competences.