Psychotherapy in its various forms is indispensable in psychiatric practice worldwide, in scarce resource as well as in high-income countries. As professionals, we have an obligation to make our best efforts to ensure that psychotherapy is available to people who need it. Creating the conditions for this, which allow well-trained practitioners to provide good-quality care where and when it is required, either directly or through training and supervision of health and community workers, rests with professional associations, civil society and governments. They need to be united in recognising needs and solutions. It is well known, however, that the shortcomings in health-care resources and the organisation of services make this an aspiration rather than a reality in almost all countries. The editors define intercultural therapy as the therapeutic work between psychotherapists and patients stemming from different cultural contexts with the consequent hampering of language- and culture-based understanding. They point out that in today’s world, intercultural psychotherapy may well become the rule rather than the exception. The intercultural aspects are relevant to psychotherapy in general. In every psychotherapeutic encounter and in every training situation, the cultural backgrounds of the therapist, patient, trainer and trainee need attention. The challenges include how to ensure quality of psychotherapeutic work whatever the setting. Psychotherapists regardless of their specific methodological background are challenged to adapt to this reality.