Psychotherapy and Social Psychiatry: Cross-fertilization and Mutual Influences

The World Federation for Psychotherapy and the World Association of Social Psychiatry are allied organizations with a history of close academic collaboration over several decades. The authors provide an overview of the history and activities of the Federation, highlighting recent educational congresses, regional meetings, workshops, symposia, and lectureships. Since the Federation represents constituents in all continents, the authors describe creative examples of how to effectively bridge resource disparities by delivering psychotherapy services following the public health model of task shifting. Specific examples of initiatives in Uganda and the Philippines are portrayed. Finally, converging areas of academic focus and research that link Social Psychiatry with psychotherapy are proposed, including social determinants of illness, health, and resilience, and understanding how adverse events during the vulnerable periods of development impact our biology at the level of the DNA, microbiome, endocrine, immune and inflammatory systems, and how psychotherapy recalibrates the biological disequilibrium caused by environmental stressors. The authors conclude with a call for research to carefully study cultural adaptations of psychotherapies.