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What can therapists learn from the CIA? Experts versus the "Wisdom of the Crowd"
What can we therapists learn from the CIA? In a phrase, “When it comes to making predictions about important future events, don’t rely on experts!” After a spate of embarrassing, high-profile intelligence failures, a recent story showed how a relatively small group of average people made better predictions about critical world events than highly-trained analysts with access to classified information. — read more
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Good News and Bad News about Psychotherapy
Have you seen this month’s issue of, “The National Psychologist?” If you do counseling or psychotherapy, you should read it. The headline screams, “Therapy: No Improvement for 40 Years.” And while I did not know the article would be published, I was not surprised by the title nor it’s contents. The author and associate editor, — read more
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What to Pay Attention to in Therapy?
A week or so ago, I received an email from my friend, colleague, and mentor Joe Yeager. He runs a small listserve that sends out interesting and often provocative information. The email contained pictures from a new and, dare I say, ingenious advertising campaign for Colgate brand dental floss. Before I give you any of — read more
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Dealing with Scientific Objections to the Outcome and Session Rating Scales: Real and Bogus
The available evidence is clear: seeking formal feedback from consumers of behavioral health services decreases drop out and deterioration while simultanesouly improving effectiveness. When teaching practitioners how to use the ORS and SRS to elicit feedback regarding progress and the therapeutic relationship, three common and important concerns are raised: How can such simple and brief scales provide — read more
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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! Growing interest in FIT is leading to the publication of research articles on its application in different contexts — an article on using the ORS and SRS in smoking cessation treatment, another a long-awaited article on the validity and reliability of the Group Session Rating Scale, and finally, a piece — read more
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An Easy Way to Improve Our Schools (and Psychotherapy)
There is this article that appeared a while ago in the Atlantic Monthly that stuck with me. In it, Amanda Ripley detailed 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 — read more