Cotherapy Team

Cotherapy refers to any therapy session—individual, couple, family, or group—in which more than one therapist conducts a therapy session at the same time. When all practitioners are not present simultaneously, the treatment provided [Page 363]is concurrent therapy; one therapist working with an adolescent child and another therapist working with a parent demonstrates concurrent therapy. Another common example of concurrent treatment would be a case in which an individual seeks pharmacotherapy from one provider and psychotherapy from another.

Cotherapy is common in training situations, both in early training phases of therapy education and also when more experienced therapists learn the protocol for a treatment that involves a specified series of steps—as commonly occurs in many clinical trials. Outside of these more controlled environments, cotherapy is less common ...