What is a good alternative to psychotherapy for dysthymia?

Many Medications: Dysthymia is treated with psychotherapy and/or medications. Better outcomes usually occur when both are combined. Foregoing psychotherapy there a number of medications that have proven to be effective such as: ssris like prozac, zoloft, paxil, also remeron, serzone, effexor, (venlafaxine) Cymbalta and wellbutrin. Mean response is about 55% with meds. Ssris are generally tolerated better.

Try again OR meds: Often pragmatic reasons (cost, time) steer people away from psychotherapy. Many others had a bad therapy experience (my advice to them would be to try again with another therapist...More so than other doc-patient relationships, a "good fit" is crucial here). Others, however, are just not good therapy candidates, any many do get better with antidepressants alone. Talk to your doc to explore options.

Meds and therapy: Dysthymia is more difficult to treat than recurrent depression, because it is more persistent. Medications can be helpful, but should be combined with therapy. Finding a therapist you can work with may take several attempts. Keep trying.

Meds up to a point: Medications can work up to a point to manage emotional difficulties, but the optimal combination is meds and psychotherapy (and there are many different kinds of psychotherapy). You have to find the one that works for you. I would suggest psychodynamic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis.