The erosion of social trust directly impacts mental health care, yet creating trust in psychotherapy is useful only to the extent that it generalizes to patients’ relationships beyond treatment, and this generalization requires trustworthy relationships and communities. This discusses the problems with scientific reductionism in the field of psychotherapy and the need for a broader ethical framework, including a shift in focus from patients’ distrust to consideration of what renders therapists trustworthy. It also examines the combination of care and competence in trustworthiness in psychotherapy and beyond, and explore how trust and faith in oneself (and others) are essential for the hope that successful treatment requires.
