Physical illness is associated with worry and uncertainty. People react differently to illness, and their distress can seldom be adequately conceptualized in purely biomedical terms. There are many different types of psychotherapy, but this chapter focuses on three main approaches: basic supportive techniques and problem solving, relational therapies and cognitive-behavioural therapies. A relatively greater proportion of the chapter is devoted to cognitive-behavioural therapies because of the large evidence base supporting this kind of therapy for a wide variety of different psychological and emotional problems. Problem solving therapy (PST) is a clinical intervention approach aimed at increasing an individual's ability to cope with stressful problems. Relational therapies focus upon emotions or feeling states and their relationship to interpersonal functioning. Psychotherapy is not effectively targeted at present. Referrals for psychotherapy treatment in patients with physical illness are fairly random processes.