Psychotherapy as investigation: cultivating curiosity and insight in the therapeutic process

Psychotherapy training and practice have grown increasingly complex, driven by expanding diagnostic frameworks, theoretical models, and intervention methods. This complexity can at best confuse and at worst overwhelm therapists, limiting therapeutic effectiveness and obscuring the relational core that is crucial to successful therapy. In this paper, we explore a different path than increasing complexity: simplicity. Specifically, drawing on recent insights from psychotherapy research and neuroscience, we highlight the intimate connection between simplicity and curiosity and how different types of curiosity can be operationalized in the therapeutic setting. We also explore how curiosity interacts with generative models or narratives that patients (and therapists) can be overidentified with, leading to confirmation bias. Also, we highlight how curiosity and simplicity can mutually foster each other in the therapeutic relationship, co-emerging as a strong driving factor for therapeutic insight and change. Further, we explore the relationship between curiosity and interoceptive awareness, which can be operationally enhanced by embodied practices (e.g., mindfulness, meditation etc.). Ultimately, rather than the accumulation of knowledge, psychotherapy that centers on curiosity empowers clients toward exploration and adaptive flexibility to foster autonomy and insight, while potentially protecting psychotherapists from stagnation, fostering continued personal and professional growth.