Specificity theory Legitimizes the analyst's attempts to tailor the treatment process to improve its efficacy. It recognizes that the analyst's responsiveness effectively draws upon a rich palette of both verbal and nonverbal interventions for therapeutic relating. Dispensing with the notion of analytic neutrality, specificity theory recognizes that each therapist offers something therapeutically unique to a particular patient, which includes but also transcends both theory and technique, encompassing who the therapist is as an individual in innumerable respects. It requires that the therapeutic engagement be continually monitored and adjusted to fit the changing capacities and limitations of the particular therapeutic dyad. The principles of specificity theory are suitable to be used by therapists of different theoretical backgrounds—and further, can be applied as an overarching principle functioning to integrate diverse theoretical approaches.