Let me illustrate with an example from Arnold Lazarus, a real luminary of behavioral, manualized treatments.

FORBES: Want Bad Advice? Ask A Journalist How To Find A Therapist (2 of 2)

In fact, someone can find a prospective therapist expert in the latest manualized treatment who also happens to be a lousy therapist, or a lousy therapist for a particular person.

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The huge panorama of problems, issues, untoward thoughts, negative emotions, conflicts, sensory dysphoria, interpersonal ineptitude, and intrusive images that bring most people to therapists far outweigh the relatively small number of complaints that are thus far amenable to empirical methods and manualized therapy.

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