Feedback Informed Treatment – FIT

I hope this post finds you, your loved ones, and colleagues, safe and healthy. What an amazing few weeks this has been.  Daily life, as most of us know it, has been turned upside down.  The clinicians I’ve spoken with are working frantically to adjust to the new reality, including staying abreast of rapidly evolving — read more

You’ve been busy!  Stocking up on food.  Telecommuting.  Home schooling your kids.  And figuring out how you are going to pay bills while not drawing a paycheck or being able to meet with clients face to face. Many clinicians I know are rapidly transitioning to providing services online.  As you might imagine, many of those — read more

In 2007, my colleagues and I published an article entitled, Supershrinks: What’s the Secret of their Success?  In it, we reported on the status of our then decade long effort to understand why some psychotherapists were consistently more effective than others.  Although the phenomenon had first been reported in the mid-1970’s by psychologist David F. — read more

“Everyone understands how a toilet works, don’t you?” ask cognitive scientists Sloman and Fernbach. The answer, according to their research, is likely no.  Turns out, peoples’ confidence in their knowledge far outstrips their ability to explain how any number of simple, every day items work — a coffeemaker, zipper, bicycle and yes, a toilet.   More troubling, — read more

Is it just me or has public discourse gone mad? A brief perusal of social media largely finds accusation, name calling, and outrage instead of exploration, dialogue and debate.  Not that any of the latter options were ever simple, straightforward, or successful, but somehow, somewhere, taking a stand has replaced extending a hand. Thus, slightly — read more

A ship’s captain who successfully sails through a strait at night learns nothing, and adds nothing, to their knowledge of the world. (Please hang with me.  I promise this post will not be a long, metaphysical rant). Returning to the example.  As paradoxical as it may strike one at first blush, a captain whose ship founders — read more

As a mental health professional, how do you approach a New Year?  Are you filled with hope for our field?  Suffering a twinge (or more) of despair?  Maybe you’re in reflective mood, longing for the ‘good ole days’?  Or is the difference between December 31st and January 1st just like any other twenty four hour — read more

“I heard Scott Miller say it,” the man sitting next to me said. “Really?” I responded, somewhat incredulous.  After all, I didn’t recall ever saying such a thing.  More to the point, it’s just not something I would say.  Its wrong.  Then again, it was clear he didn’t know that I was Scott Miller.  Not wanting to — read more

Or, at least that’s what I said in response to his question.  The look on his face made clear my words caused more confusion than clarity. “But then, how will I found out which of the therapists at my agency are effective?” he asked. “The purpose of FIT,” I replied, “is not to profile, but rather — read more

Remember Beanie Babies?  According to one news story, interest was such, “People neglected other areas of their lives to spend all day trading, and some even invested their children’s college funds in toys that they believed would bring an astronomical return on investment.” And how about advertising executive Gary Dahl’s product?  You remember him, right?  — read more

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from the leader of a group asking me to send them copies of the ORS and SRS. “We are to start using these straight away,” the person wrote. I replied, of course, providing a link to my website where the scales could be downloaded along with — read more

Mr. Gomm was my sixth grade teacher.  Tall and angular, with a booming voice and stern demeanor, he remains a forbidding figure from my childhood. I’ll never forget the day he slammed his open hand on my desk, bellowing “That, Mr. Miller, is an assumption!”  Turning abruptly, he walked to the chalkboard, and began writing, one capital — read more

Imagine a power so great that those who possess it are able to heal the sick, and those without it, cause death. By definition, it would qualify as a superpower — and, in fact, one Marvel comic character has claimed this one for their own. More than seven dozen studies have investigated the impact of — read more

Take a good look at the photo to the left. Do you know this person? His name is Myron L. Fox, M.D., a graduate of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Still doesn’t ring a bell? At one point, he was the one of the highest rated presenters on the continuing education circuit for physicians, — read more

My family and I had a frightening experience this past Memorial Day.  While driving through Indiana on the way home to Chicago, our mobile phones began to alert.  You know the sound — part cicada, part microphone feedback, but louder.   “Tornado warning in this area.” Not a watch, mind you, a warning.  The difference is critical.  A watch means — read more

It was a curious finding.  One we stumbled on quite by accident.  Highly effective therapists were more likely to contact their clients between visits than their more average peers.  We wondered whether such behavior might account, at least in part, for their superior retention rates and outcomes? Turns out, our serendipitous finding fit nicely with — read more

Several weeks ago, the American Psychological Association (APA) released its latest in a series of practice guidelines for psychologists – this time for “Psychological Practice with Boys and Men.”  Prior years had seen guidelines focused on ethnicity, older adults, girls and women, LGBT, and “transgender and gender-non-conforming” persons. Curiously, despite claiming to be based on — read more

I’m neither a great psychotherapist or surfer.  I love doing both, however. Turns out, the two share a fundamental similarity critical to successful execution; in a word, responsiveness. /rəˈspänsivnəs/ NOUN The quality of reacting quickly and positively. In surfing, you take advantage of the waves coming your way.  In psychotherapy, you utilize and react to what — read more

Nearly two decades have passed since I met Saul Rosenzweig at his home in St. Louis, Missouri.  He was well into his nineties and still working every day.  Truth is, I was surprised to learn he was still alive! In 1936, he’d penned an article –three and a half pages in total– that became one of — read more

In my travels each year, I meet 1,000’s of clinicians–professionals who truly want to help others, and are willing to try almost anything to do so. That’s why I always “lean in” whenever one expresses concern about the rising popularity of using formal measures of progress and the therapeutic relationship to inform and improve the — read more