An Overview of Theories and Concepts

This chapter is designed to introduce nurses and nursing students to the development of nursing knowledge and science upon which nursing psychotherapy practice is based. Nurses aspiring to have or, those with a psychotherapy practice may have had limited knowledge of the evolution of the theoretical base which enriches nursing psychotherapy practice. This may be in part because of an absence of a coherent compilation and integration of the extant theoretical works. An historical overview of some of the nursing theorists who have been integral to the evolution of nursing psychotherapy practice is provided. The grandmother of psychiatric nursing—Hildegard Peplau (1909–1999) and her psychodynamic model, and Joyce Travelbee (1926–1973) with her human-to-human theory, have been identified as early theorists of historical significance (Alligood, 2022). They provide foundational concepts for nurses’ practice of psychotherapy. The Tidal Model® (Barker, 2000) expands the work of these two theorists. McAllister (2003) further develops solution-focused nursing which is particularly relevant for nursing psychotherapy practice and Leininger illuminates an important culture and diversity focus (McFarland, 2022). Foundational concepts for nurses’ practice of psychotherapy have emerged and continue to develop in our historical evolution.