Essay Contest: Call for Submissions

The Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy Research (Division 29 of the American Psychological Association) invites members to participate in an essay contest on the theme:

“Cultural Wisdoms and Common Factors in Psychotherapy: Rethinking What Makes Psychotherapy Helpful Across Cultures”

Psychotherapy is practiced across diverse cultural contexts. Yet many of the theories, research traditions, and assumptions that shape contemporary psychotherapy have been developed within the mainstream knowledge systems and institutions centered mainly in the Euro-American psychology. At the same time, diverse cultures around the world have developed rich and diverse understandings of human suffering, healing, relationships, change, and well-being that have not received sufficient attention within the dominant psychotherapy literature.

This essay contest invites members of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy Research (APA Division 29) to explore what psychotherapy might learn from diverse cultural wisdoms and what these wisdoms might contribute to our understanding of common factors in psychotherapy. We particularly welcome essays that explore how cultural wisdoms may inform, expand, challenge, or reinterpret current understandings of what makes psychotherapy helpful.

Essays might consider questions such as:

• What cultural wisdom offers important insights into healing, human suffering, well-being, relationships, or change?
• What can Indigenous, traditional, spiritual, philosophical, or community-based healing traditions teach us about processes that may be common across forms of helping?
• How might cultural wisdoms deepen our understanding of therapeutic relationships, empathy, hope, meaning, connection, agency, collaboration, or other proposed common factors?
• How commonly identified psychotherapy factors vary across cultural contexts?
• What cultural assumptions about human beings, health, suffering, and change are embedded in current common-factor theories?
• How might culturally specific understandings of healing challenge assumptions about what is universal in psychotherapy?
• What can we learn by placing culturally grounded wisdoms in dialogue with contemporary psychotherapy research?

Essays may be conceptual, theoretical, reflective, integrative, or empirically informed. We encourage submissions that not only describe a cultural tradition but also consider what that wisdom might contribute to broader conversations about psychotherapy and the processes through which helping becomes effective for diverse populations.

Eligibility

All current members, including student and associated members, of APA Division 29 (Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy Research) are eligible to participate. Authors must be  members at the time of submission.

Award and Publication

The winning essay author will receive a $750 award.

The winning essay is expected to be published in Psychotherapy Bulletin, subject to the journal’s editorial process.

Submission

Please submit your essay in a pdf file, no shorter than 1000 words and no longer than 2250 words, to Dr. Wonjin Sim  wsim@towson.edu by January 31, 2027, with a cover letter that should include:

• Name
• Degree(s)
• Professional affiliation
• Email address and telephone number
• Mailing address
• Confirmation of current APA Division 29 membership
• If student member, your academic advisor’s name and email address.

Thank you for your interest in participating in this contest!