The Korean Academy of Psychotherapists (KAP) started in 1974 as Psychotherapy Case Study Group, which was absorbed and expanded into the Korean Academy of Psychotherapy Research in 1976. Later, the Academy once again expanded and was established as the Korean Academy of Psychotherapists in 1979. From the beginning, Prof. RHEE Dongshick played a leading role with his pioneering efforts and prophetic insights and served as President for several terms.

The philosophical goal of the Academy has been to assimilate Western psychoanalysis and psychotherapy on the basis of Eastern Tao (Zen Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) and the Korean cultural roots, and to integrate and unify Western psychotherapy and the Tao, known as the ultimate form of psychotherapy.

In the year of 1976, KAP became a society member of the IFMP (International Federation for Medical Psychotherapy, which was renamed the International Federation for Psychotherapy (IFP) in 1991) and members of KAP have actively participated in the world congresses sponsored by the IFMP (or IFP)

The KAP hosted a joint conference with the American Academy of Psychoanalysis in 1990 and with the ANZAP (Australia and New Zealand Associations of Psychotherapy) in 1992. KAP members also conducted several international workshops on 'Integration of Eastern Tao and Western Psychotherapy', and held a workshop at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czechoslovakia and at the USSR Academy of Sciences (now, the Russian Academy of Sciences) in Moscow, Russia, on September, 1991. KAP hosted the 16th International Congress of Psychotherapy of IFP with the central theme 'Psychotherapy: East and West‘ in Seoul, Korea, August, 1994.

Now, KAP has around 145 regular members consisting of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. It has several study groups of Eastern Tao classics, Western Psychotherapy, group supervision, psychotherapy workshop and case studies.