Abstract: The research on psychotherapeutic process, aimed to identify the active ingredients and mechanisms of psychotherapy, was an important region in research on psychotherapy efficacy. The research progress manifested in the expanding of its research subjects, improvement of its research methods and its new research findings. And seven suggestions on future researches were proposed, which included viewing active ingredients as layering, combining researches on change mechanism in two lines with therapy process model, using for reference findings from related regions, improving the temporal design of RCTs, attending to qualitative approach, practitioners collaborating with researchers, and conducting researches in Chinese contest.

Key words: psychotherapy, process research, active ingredients, mediator, change mechanisms