Mood disorders affecting the emotional life, the most genuine element of a human being, are characterised by a diversity of clinical presentations, multifactorial determination and a tendency to recurrence. Psychotherapeutic management is eclectic and pertains to the different treatment objectives related to each phase of the clinical course. This article provides practical guidelines for the psychotherapeutic management of unipolar depression in the different phases of its course. The acute phase, directed to remission and the establishment of a therapeutic relationship, the continuation phase with consolidation of the remission, further diagnosis and management of causal stressors, and the maintenance phase, focusing on rehabilitation and prevention of relapse and recurrence. There is a discrepancy between the use of psychotherapeutic management in mood disorders and the low scientific status it is given, which warrants further research and development of therapeutic strategies.