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The Importance of "Whoops" in Improving Treatment Outcome
“Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen, Anthem Making mistakes. We all do it, in both our personal and professional lives. “To err is human…,” the old saying goes. And most of us say, if asked, that we agree… — read more
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What is the Real Source of Effectiveness in Smoking Cessation Treatment? New Research on Feedback Informed Treatment
When it rains, it pours! So much news to relay regarding recent research on Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT). Just received news this week from ICCE Associate Stephen Michaels that research using the ORS and SRS in smoking cessation treatment is in print! A few days prior to that, Kelley Quirk sent a copy of our… — read more
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Clinical Support Tools for the ORS and SRS
I have so much to be grateful for at this time. Most of all, I’m happy to be home with my family. As we have in the past, this year we’ll be spending the holiday at the home of our long time friends John and Renee Dalton. The two always put out a fantastic spread and our son,… — read more
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An Easy Way to Improve Our Schools (and Psychotherapy)
If you didn’t see the October Atlantic Monthly, you really missed a great issue. In it, Amanda Ripley wrote a delightful and informative article about a simple and straightforward method for improving the performance of the public schools: have kids grade teachers. What kind of grades you ask? Not those on standardized achievement tests, and certainly not measures of a… — read more
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National Psychotherapy Day: A Recognition, Celebration, and Call for Action
With all the challenges facing the profession, it is important to highlight people and organizations that are working hard to make a difference. On that note, tomorrow, Tuesday the 25th of September 2012 is the very first National Psychotherapy Day. Having a day of unified, active promotion of psychotherapy is the brain child… — read more
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Looking for Results in All the Wrong Places: What Makes Feedback Work?
As anyone knows who reads this blog or has been to one of my workshops, I am a fan of feedback. Back in the mid-1990’s, I began using Lynn Johnson’s 10-item Session Rating Scale in my clinical work. His book, Psychotherapy in the Age of Accountability, and our long relationship, convinced me that I… — read more
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Feedback Informed Treatment: Update
Chicago, IL (USA) The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity here in Chicago. First, the "Advanced Intensive." Next came the annual "Training of Trainers." Each week, the room was filled to capacity with practitioners, researchers, supervisors, and agency directors from around the globe receiving in-depth training in feedback-informed practice. It was a… — read more
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A Lotta Help from One’s Friends: The Role of Community in the Pursuit of Excellence
Dateline: Chicago, IL USA Hard not to be impressed with the USA Women’s Gymnastic team. What skill, percision, expertise, and excellence. By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the interviews. In all instances, each and every one has focused on the team. Despite some in the media attempting to make stars out of the individual members,… — read more
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Mental Health Practice in a Global Economy
Did you feel it? The seismic shift that occurred in field of mental health just a little over a month ago? No? Nothing? Well, in truth, it wasn’t so much a rip in the space-time continuum as a run. That "run," however, promises to forever alter the fabric of clinical practice–in particular how clinicians earn… — read more
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A Progress Report on the Science (and Art ) of Psychotherapy: The Psychotherapy Networker 30th Anniversary Edition
The 30th Anniversary Edition of the Psychotherapy Networker has hit newsstands. In it, is an article by Diane Cole taking the measure of psychotherapy. Her question? Has the field gotten any better over the last three decades? The entire issue is a "must read," starting with editor Rich Simon’s lengthy and thought provoking editorial, "Still… — read more
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The Achieving Clinical Excellence Conference CALL FOR PAPERS
In October 2010, the first annual "Achieving Clinical Excellence" was held in Kansas City, Missouri. A capacity crowd joined leading experts on the subject of top performance for three days worth of training and inspiration. K. Anders Ericsson reviewed his groundbreaking research, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell and others. ICCE Director, Scott D. Miller translated the… — read more
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Implementation Science, FIT, and the Training of Trainers
The International Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE) is pleased to announce the 6th annual Training of Trainers event to be held in Chicago, Illinois August 6th-10th, 2012. As always, the ICCE TOT prepares participants provide training, consultation, and supervision to therapists, agencies, and healthcare systems in Feedback-Informed Treatment (FIT). Attendees leave the intensive, hands-on… — read more
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Getting FIT: Another Opportunity
The March Advanced Intensive in Feedback Informed Treatment is full! Not a single space left. For several weeks, we put folks on a waiting list. When that reached nearly 20, we told most they’d probably have to wait until next year to attend. Wait no more! The ICCE is pleased to announce a second, "Advanced… — read more
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Cutting Edge Feedback
Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS Using feedback to guide and improve the quality and outcome of behavioral health services is growing in popularity. The number of systems available for measuring, aggregating, and interpreting the feedback provided by consumers is increasing. The question, of course, is, "which is best?" … — read more
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Feedback-Informed Treatment as Evidence-based Practice: APA, SAMSHA, and NREPP
What is evidence-based practice? Visit the UK-based NICE website, or talk to proponents of particular theoretical schools or therapeutic models, and they will tell you that being "evidence-based" means using the approach research has deemed effective for a particular diagnosis (e.g., CBT for depression, EMDR for trauma). Over the last two decades, numerous organizations and… — read more
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Deliberate Practice: What’s all the fuss about?
Whatever they might be engaged in—dancing, singling, teaching, or doing therapy, top performers make “it” look so easy. Witnessing such a performance inspires awe and wonder, leading many unitiated to whisper about some being lucky, “born with talent.” How else can one explain the superior abilities of those we admire? “Sure, most will readily acknowledge,… — read more
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Becoming FIT: The 2011 Training of Trainers
August 10th, 2011 Chicago, IL The first week of August was one of the hottest weeks on record in Chicago. It was also the location of the hottest training on "feedback-informed treatment" (FIT)–the 5th Annual "Training of Trainers" weeklong intensive training. We worked intensively over 5 days preparing an international group of administrators, supervisors, researchers, and… — read more
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The Mystery of Mastery: Excellence Takes Center Stage in the Psychotherapy Networker
The Psychotherapy Networker has long been the most popular periodical among practicing clinicians. Rumor has it that the magazine has 80,000+ subscribers and sells over 120,000 copies of each issue. If you want to know what therapists are thinking and talking about, the Networker magazine is the place to look. And in the May/June issue,… — read more
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Changing Home-Based Mental Health Care for Good: Using Feedback Informed Treatment
Modified Arnold Woodruff & Kathy Levenston Some teach. Some write. Some publish research. Arnold Woodruff and Kathy Levenston work for a living! Kathy Levenston specializes in working with foster and adopted children. Arnold Woodruff developed the first intensive in-home program run by a community services board in Virginia. He has over 30 years of experience, and has served as… — read more
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The Growing Evidence Base for Feedback-Informed Treatment (FIT)
Dateline: February 2, 2011 Location: Anchorage, AK Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska where I’ve been traveling and teaching about feedback-informed treatment (FIT). On Monday, I worked with dedicated behavioral health professionals living and working in Barrow–the northern most point in the United States. FIT has literally reached the "top of the world." How incredible is that? Here… — read more
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Getting FIT in the New Year: The Latest Evidence
John Norcross, Ph.D. is without a doubt the researcher that has done the most to highlight the evidence-base supporting the importance of the relationship between clinician and consumer in successful behavioral healthcare. The second edition of his book, Psychotherapy Relationships that Work, is about to be released. Like the last edition, this volume is a virtual… — read more
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Pushing the Research Envelope: Getting Researchers to Conduct Clinically Meaningful Research
At the recent ACE conference, I had the pleasure of learning from the world’s leading experts on expertise and top performance. Equally stimulating were conversations in the hallways between presentations with clinicians, policy makers, and researchers attending the event. One of those was Bill Andrews, the director of the HGI Practice Research Network in the UK who… — read more
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Am-ACE-ing Events in Kansas City: The First International Achieving Clinical Excellence Conference
Here’s a riddle for you: What do therapists, researchers, case managers, magicians, surgeons, award winning musicians, counselors, jugglers, behavioral health agency directors, and balloon twisting artists have in common? Answer: They all participated in the first "Achieving Clinical Excellence" held last week in Kansas City, Missouri. It’s true. The "motley" crew of presenters, entertainers, and attendees came to Kansas… — read more
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What is "Best Practice?"
You have to admit the phrase “best practice” is the buzzword of late. Graduate school training programs, professional continuing education events, policy and practice guidelines, and funding decisions are tied in some form or another to the concept. So, what exactly is it? At the State and Federal level, lists of so-called “evidence-based” interventions have been assembled and… — read more