icce – Page 2 – Scott D.Miller

The World Did Not End: What it a Bad Thing?

May 25th, 2011 Chicago, Illinois On Saturday the 21st of May, 2011 the world was supposed to come to an end. It did not. My question: was that a bad thing? Would it have been better if, as the now twice wrong Prophet Harold Camping predicted, the world had ended. In the world of public… — read more
Why is this man laughing?

May 4th, 2011 Copenhagen, Denmark Just finished my first day of a two week trip covering spots in Denmark and Holland. Yesterday, I traveled to Copenhagen from Hilo, Hawaii where I was presenting for the Hawaiian Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Gay Barflied (pictured on the far left above) spent years lobbying to… — read more
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
Getting FIT: The Advanced Intensive Training

Dateline: January 19, 2011 Buffalo, New York The New Year is here and travel/training season is in full swing. Last week, I was in Ohio and Virginia. This week New York and Idaho (keep your weather fingers crossed, it’s going to be dicey getting from here to there and home again). Interest in "Feedback Informed… — read more
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
Becoming FIT: Simple but not Easy

Becoming FIT (feedback informed in treatment). Ask any experienced practitioner and they will tell you, "it’s such a simple idea, but it’s not easy." In addition to the time it takes to master the administration and interpretation of formal feedback, special skills are required for using the information to guide service delivery. Implementation in agencies… — read more
Feedback informed treatment (FIT) takes center stage in Sweden

Just a short entry to highlight recent developments in Sweden… On November 17th and 18th, over 500 politicians, agency directors, and service managers gathered together to discuss "the future of alcohol and drug treatment" in Sweden. High on the agenda? Feedback Informed Treatment! Psychologist and ICCE Associate, Gun-Eva Langdahl and the rest of the talented crew at… — read more
Growing by Leaps and Bounds: ICCE Membership Nearing 2000!

In December 2009, the International Center for Clinical Excellence was officially launched. From our booth at the Evolution of Psychotherapy conference, the international web-based community "went live," adding hundreds of members in a few days. By April, as I reported in my blog, over 1000 clinicians, researchers, policy makers, and adminsitrators had joined the site, making… — read more
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
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
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
No Therapist Left Behind: Improving the Quality and Outcome of Behavioral Health Services One Practitioner at a Time

Staying “up-to-date” isn’t easy in today’s practice environment. In these lean economic times, training budgets are often the first to be cut. On the other hand, trying to separate the “important” from “irrelevant” in our information-rich age can be, as Mitchell Kapor once observed, “a bit like trying to get a drink from a fire hydrant.” … — read more
Clinician Beware: Ignoring Research Can be Hazardous to Your Professional (and Economic) Health

“Studies show…” “Available data indicate…” “This method is evidence-based…” My how things have changed. Twenty years ago when I entered the field, professional training, continuing education events, and books rarely referred to research or evidence. Now, everyone refers to the “data.” The equation is simple: no research = no money. Having “an evidence-base” increasingly determines book sales, attendance at… — read more
What Works in the Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? The Definitive Study

What works in the treatment of people with post-traumatic stress? The influential Cochrane Collaboration–an "independent network of people" whose self-professed mission is to help "healthcare providers, policy makers, patients, their advocates and carers, make well-informed decisions, concludes that, "non trauma-focused psychological treatments [do] not reduce PTSD symptoms as significantly…as individual trauma focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TFCBT), eye… — read more
Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT): A Worldwide Trend in Behavioral Health

In my prior blogpost, I reviewed exciting developments taking place throughout Canada regarding "feedback-informed treatment" (FIT). For those following me on Twitter–and if you’re not, please do so by clicking on the link–you already know that last week I was in Tunbridge, England for a two day training sponsored by the Kent-Medway National Healthcare Trust on "Supershrinks: Learning from the Fields… — read more
Implementing Consumer-Driven, Outcome-Informed (CDOI) Behavioral Health Services: The ICCE and 2010 Training of Trainers Event

This week I’m in Calgary, Canada. Last week, I was in Charleston, South Carolina. Next week, I’ll be in Marion, Ohio and Bay city, Michigan. In each instance, I’m working with the management and staff of public behavioral health agencies that are busy implementing consumer-driven, outcome-informed clinical work. Some of the groups are just beginning… — read more
Finding Feasible Measures for Practice-Based Evidence

Let’s face it. Clinicians are tired. Tired of paperwork (electronic or othrwise). When I’m out and about training–which is every week by the way–and encouraging therapists to monitor and measure outcomes in their daily work few disagree in principle. The pain is readily apparent however, the minute the paper version of the Outcome Rating Scale flashes on the… — read more
Feedback, Friends, and Outcome in Behavioral Health

My first year in college, my declared major was accounting. What can I say? My family didn’t have much money and my mother–who chose my major for me–thought that the next best thing to wealth was being close to money. Much to her disappointment I switched from accounting to psychology in my softmore year. That’s when I first met Dr. Michael Lambert.… — read more
Bringing up Baseline: The Effect of Alliance and Outcome Feedback on Clinical Performance

Not long ago, my friend and colleague Dr. Rick Kamins was on vacation in Hawaii. He was walking along the streets of a small village, enjoying the warm weather and tropical breezes, when the sign on a storefront caught his eye. Healing Arts Alliance, it read. The proprieter? None other than, "Scott Miller, Master of… — read more
Eruptions in Europe and in Research

Dateline: 11:20 am, April 18th, 2010 Today I was supposed to fly from Stockholm, Sweden to the far northern town of Skelleftea–a flight that takes a little over an hour. Instead, I’m sitting on a train headed for Sundsvall, the first leg of a 12 hour trip that will include a 6 hour bus ride… — read more
Neurobabble Redux: Comments from Dr. Mark Hubble on the Latest Fad in the World of Therapy Spark Comment and Controversy

Last week, my long time colleague and friend, Dr. Mark Hubble blogged about the current interest of non-medically trained therapists in the so-called "neurobiology of human behavior." In my intro to his post, I "worried" out loud about the field’s tendency to search for legitimzing foundational metaphors. Over the years, psychotherapy has flirted with… — read more
Problems in Evidence-Based Land: Questioning the Wisdom of "Preferred Treatments"

This last week, Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor for the U.K. Independent published an article entitled, “The big question: Does cognitive therapy work? And should the NHS (National Health Service) provide more of it?” Usually such questions are limited to professional journals and trade magazines. Instead, it ran in the “Life and Style” section of one of Britain’s… — read more
Is Professional Training a Waste of Time?

Every year, thousands of students graduate from professional programs with degrees enabling them to work in the field of behavioral health. Many more who have already graduated and are working as a social worker, psychologist, counselor, or marriage and family therapist attend—often by legal mandate—continuing education events. The costs of such training in terms of time and… — read more
Deliberate Practice, Expertise, & Excellence

Later today, I board United flight 908 on my way to workshops scheduled in Holland and Belgium. My routine in the days leading up to an international trip is always the same. I slowly gather together the items I’ll need while away: computer (check); european electric adapter (check); presentation materials (check); clothes (check). And, oh yeah, two decks of playing cards… — read more
The Future of Behavioral Health: Integrated Care & Entrepreneurship

Nicholas Cummings, Ph.D. Sometime in late 1986 I wrote a letter to Dr. Nicholas Cummings. As a then student-member of the American Psychological Association (APA), I was automatically subscribed to and receiving the American Psychologist. In the April issue, Dr. Cummings published an article, provocatively titled, "The Dismantling of Our Health System: Strategies for the Survival of Psychological Practice." … — read more
The Turn to Outcomes: A Revolution in Behavioral Health Practice

Get ready. The revolution is coming (if not already here). Whether you are a direct service provider (psychologist, counselor, marriage and family therapist), agency, broker, or funder, you will be required to measure and likely report the outcomes of your clinical work. Jay Lebow, Ph.D. Just this month, Dr. Jay Lebow, a professor of psychology at the… — read more
Accountability in Behavioral Health: Steps for Dealing with Cutbacks, Shortfalls, and Tough Economic Conditions

As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I get around. In the past few months, I visited Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark (to name but a few countries) as well as criss-crossed the United States. If I were asked to sum up the state of public behavioral health agencies in a single word, the word–with very… — read more
Outcomes in the Artic: An Interview with Norwegian Practitioner Konrad Kummernes

Dateline: Mosjoen, Norway The last stop on my training tour around northern Norway was Mosjoen. The large group of psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, case managers, and physicians laughed uproariously when I talked about the bumpy, "white-knuckler" ride aboard the small twin-engine airplane that delivered me to the snowy, mountain-rimmed town. They were all to familiar with the… — read more
Practice-Based Evidence in Norway: An Interview with Psychologist Mikael Aagard

For those of you following me on Twitter–and if you’re not, click here to start–you know that I was traveling above the artic circle in Norway last week. I always enjoy visiting the Scandanavia countries. My grandparents immigrated from nearby Sweden. I lived there myself for a number of years (and speak the language). And I am married… — read more
Evidence-based practice or practice-based evidence? Article in the Los Angeles Times addresses the debate in behavioral health

January 11th, 2010 "Debate over Cognitive & Traditional Mental Health Therapy" by Eric Jaffe The fight debate between different factons, interest groups, scholars within the field of mental health hit the pages of the Los Angeles Times this last week. At issue? Supposedly, whether the field will become "scientific" in practice or remain mired in traditions of… — read more