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‘Clinical governance’ is a term coined to denote a requirement that all forms of clinical care should be governed by an attention to the quality of its delivery to the public. Clinical governance has been set as the future for the NHS by the NHS Executive. This paper draws together some of the themes of current discussions concerning clinical governance and other related issues for psychotherapy. Clinical governance has many facets but it can be defined as a commitment to evidence-based quality assurance in relation to clear national standards for practice, the delivery of evidence-based practice and the ongoing monitoring of standards. The paper provides a brief outline of clinical governance and indicates how it might be accomplished within primary and secondary care. A sketch is made concerning the possibility of there being local and national standards for various aspects of psychotherapy provision which is an additional requirement. The term ‘psychotherapy’ is used to cover the full range of psychological interventions. Towards the end of the paper a critical overview of the standard paradigm of quantitative research is presented. This critical stance has been provided by two leading quantitative researchers who have called into question the applicability of the drug trial model for testing efficacy and finding the change-active ingredients of psychotherapy.