• Outcomes in Ohio: The Ohio Council of Behavioral Health & Family Service Providers

    Ohio is experiencing the same challenges faced by other states when it comes to behavioral health services: staff and financial cutbacks, increasing oversight and regulation, rising caseloads, unrelenting paperwork, and demands for accountability.  Into the breach, the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health & Family Service Providers organized their 30th annual conference, focused entirely on helping… — read more

    Oct 30, 2009

  • Whoa Nellie! A 25 Million Dollar Study of Treatments for PTSD

    I have in my hand a frayed and yellowed copy of observations once made by a well known trainer of horses. The trainer’s simple message for leading a productive and successful professional life was, “If the horse you’re riding dies, get off.” You would think the advice straightforward enough for all to understand and benefit.  And yet,… — read more

    Oct 27, 2009

  • Achieving Clinical Excellence: The Conference

     A few weeks ago, I announced the first International “Achieving Clinical Excellence” (ACE) conference to be held at the Westin Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri on October 20-22nd, 2010.  You can now register for this event, by clicking here or on the "Training and Consultation" link to your left.  Through a variety of keynote addresses and workshops,… — read more

    Oct 26, 2009

  • The Crown Jewel of Research on CDOI: Professor Jan Blomqvist receives 2.9 million crown grant for RCT on feedback in Sweden

    If you’ve been following me on Twitter, then you know that last week I was touring and teaching in different spots around Europe.  First, I presented two days in Copenhagen.  Then I keynoted the British Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy Conference in Newcastle, England.  Early Saturday morning, I flew from London to Stockholm.  My long time friend… — read more

    Oct 20, 2009

  • The Field, the Future, and Feedback

    There is an old (but in many ways sad) joke about two clinicians–actually, the way I first heard the story, it was two psychiatrists.  The point of the story is the same regardless of the discipline of the provider.  Anyway, two therapists meet in the hallway after a long day spent meeting clients.  One, the younger of… — read more

    Oct 2, 2009

  • International Center for Clinical Excellence: Update and Announcement

    On August 24th, right here on the "Top Performance" blog, I announced the formation of the International Center for Clinical Excellence.  As anyone who has been reading my recent posts or publication knows, my work is evolving; specifically, putting prior research on the common factors, measurement of outcome and alliance, and feedback to work in helping… — read more

    Oct 2, 2009

  • How NOT to Achieve Clinical Excellence: The Sorry State of Continuing Professional Education

    Greg Neimeyer, Ph.D., is causing quite a stir in continuing education circles.  What has he done?  In several scholarly publications, he’s reviewed the existing empirical literature and found that continuing professional education in heavioral health is not particularly, well, …educational.  Indeed, in a soon-to-be published piece in the APA journal, Professional Psychology, he notes, "While the majority of studies… — read more

    Sep 30, 2009

  • Top Resources for Top Performers

    Since the 1960’s, over 10,000 "how-to" book on psychotherapy have been published.  I joke about this fact at my workshops, stating "Any field that needs ten thousand books to describe what it’s doing…surely doesn’t know what its doing!" I continue, pointing out that, "There aren’t 10,000 plus books on ‘human anatomy,’ for example.  There are a handful! … — read more

    Sep 28, 2009

  • On the Path of the Supershrinks: An Article by Bill Robinson

    Not too long ago, my colleagues and I published some preliminary thoughts and findings from our research into "Supershrinks."  That differences in effectiveness exist between clinicians is neither surprising or new.  Indeed, "therapist effects"–as they are referred to in the research literature–have been documented for decades and rival the contribution of factors long known to… — read more

    Sep 24, 2009

  • History doesn’t repeat itself,

    Image via Wikipedia  "History doesn’t repeat itself," the celebrated American author, Mark Twain once observed, "but it does rhyme."  No better example of Twain’s wry comment than recurring claims about specifc therapeutic approaches.  As any clinician knows, every year witnesses the introduction of new treatment models.  Invariably, the developers and proponents claim superior effectivess of… — read more

    Sep 20, 2009

  • International "Achieving Clinical Excellence" Conference

    Mark your calendars!  The International Center for Clinical Excellence is pleased to announce the “Achieving Clinical Excellence” (ACE) conference to be held at the Westin Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri on October 20-22nd, 2010.  K. Anders Erickson, Ph.D., the editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance and recognized “expert on experts,” will keynote… — read more

    Sep 12, 2009

  • Practice-Based Evidence Goes Mainstream

    For years, my colleagues and I have been using the phrase "practice-based evidence" to refer to clinicians’ use of real-time feedback to develop, guide, and evaluate behavioral health services. Against a tidal wave of support from professional and regulatory bodies, we argued that the "evidence-based practice"–the notion that certain treatments work best for certain diagnosis–was… — read more

    Sep 5, 2009

  • The Evolution of Psychotherapy: Twenty-Five Years On

    In 1985, I was starting my second year as a doctoral student at the University of Utah.  Like thousands of other graduate students, I’d watched the "Gloria" films.  Carl Roger, Albert Ellis, Fritz Perls were all impressive if not confusing given their radically different styles.  I also knew that I would soon have the opportunity to meet each one live… — read more

    Sep 1, 2009

  • Excellence in Behavioral Health in Arizona

      For those of you following me on Twitter (and if you’re not already, please do as it’s a blast), you know I was teaching at the 41st Annual Southwestern School for Behavioral Health Studies. First, let me express my appreciation to the Board and Michelle Brown for bringing me to Tucson to present on “Achieving… — read more

    Aug 29, 2009

  • The Debate of the Century

    What causes change in psychotherapy?  Specific treatments applied to specific disorders?  Those in the "evidence-based" say so and have had a huge influence on behavioral healthcare policy and reimbursement.  Over the last 10 years, my colleagues and I have written extensively and traveled the world offering a different perspective: by and large, the effectiveness of… — read more

    Aug 27, 2009

  • Announcement: Evolving in a new direction

          As those of you who have followed my work and blog know, my perspective is evolving.  The direction I’m heading builds on all of the work done to date including the common factors, measurement of outcome and alliance, and feedback.  Crucially, however, it goes one step further; bridging the common and specific… — read more

    Aug 25, 2009

  • Expertise and Excellence: What it Takes to Improve Therapeutic Effectiveness

    I wonder what you were expecting to read about when you clicked on the link for my "Something Magical" blog. When the link first appeared about a month ago, I started receiving emails. First, people asked, "Where is it?" Until now, the link took readers to a mostly blank page–except the promise of "more to… — read more

    Apr 2, 2009

  • Superior Performance as a Psychotherapist: First Steps

    So what is the first step to improving your performance? Simply put, knowing your baseline. Whatever the endeavor, you have to keep score. All great performers do. As a result, the performance in most fields has been improving steadily over the last 100 years. Consider, for instance, the Olympics. Over the last century, the best… — read more

    Apr 1, 2009

  • My New Year’s Resolution: The Study of Expertise

    Most of my career has been spent providing and studying psychotherapy. Together with my colleagues at the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change, I’ve now published 8 books and too many articles and scholarly papers to count. If you are interested you can read more about and even download many of my publications here.… — read more

    Jan 2, 2009
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