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Public Attitudes Toward Mental Health Services: A Change for the Worse
The results are not encouraging. A recent meta-analysis found that public attitudes toward psychotherapy have become progressively more negative over the last 40 years. The impact on practitioners is staggering. Between 1997 and 2007, use of psychotherapy declined by 35%. Not surprisingly, clinicians’ incomes also suffered, dropping 15-20% over the last decade. So, if not psychotherapy, what do — read more
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Dumb and Dumber: Research and the Media
“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!” – Harry in Dumb & Dumber A while back, my inbox suddenly began filling with emails from friends and fellow researchers around the globe. “Have you seen the article in the Guardian?” they asked. “What — read more
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The "F" Word in Behavioral Health
Since the 1960’s, over 10,000 how-to books on psychotherapy/counseling have been published—everything from nude marathon group therapy to the most recent “energy-based treatments.” Clinicians have at their disposal literally hundreds of methods to apply to an ever growing list of diagnoses as codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (soon available in… — read more
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Hope Transcends: Learning from our Clients
"Hope Transcends" was the theme of the 39th Annual Summer Institute on Substance Abuse and Mental Health held in Newark, Delaware this last week. I had the honor of working with 60+ clinicians, agency managers, peer supports, and consumers of mental health services presenting a two-day, intensive training on "feedback-informed clinical work." I met so… — read more
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More Eruptions (in Europe and in Research)
Dateline: Tuesday, 8:21pm, April 20th, 2010, Skellefteå, Sweden What an incredible week. Spent the day today working with 250 social workers, case managers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and agency directors in the far nothern town of Skellefteå, Sweden. Many practitioners here are already measuring outcomes on an ongoing basis and using the information to improve the results of their work… — read more
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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
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Neurobabble: Comments from Dr. Mark Hubble on the Latest Fad in the World of Therapy
Rarely does a day go by without hearing about another "advance" in the neurobiology of human behavior. Suddenly, it seems, the world of psychotherapy has discovered that people have brains! And now where the unconscious, childhood, emotions, behaviors, and cognitions once where…neurons, plasticity, and magnetic resonance imagining now is. Alas, we are a field forever… — read more
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Addressing the Financial Crisis in Public Behavioral Healthcare Head On in Chesterfield, Virginia
If you are following me on Twitter (and I hope you are), you know the last month has been extremely busy. This week I worked with clinicians in Peterborough, Ontario Canada. Last week, I was in Nashville, Tennessee and Richmond Virginia. Prior to that, I spent nearly two weeks in Europe, providing training and consultations in the… — read more
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Behavioral Healthcare in Holland: The Turn Away from the Single-payer, Government-Based Reimbursement System
Several years ago I was contacted by a group of practitioners located in the largest city in the north of the Netherlands–actually the capital of the province known as Groningen. The "Platform," as they are known, were wondering if I’d be willing to come and speak at one of their upcoming conferences. The practice environment was undergoing dramatic change,… — read more
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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
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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
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DODO BIRD HYPOTHESIS PROVEN FALSE! Study of PTSD finally proves Wampold, Miller, and other "common factor" proponents wrong
Researchers Anke Ehlers, Jonathon Bisson, David Clark, Mark Creamer, Steven Pilling, David Richards, Paula Schnurr, Stuart Turner, and William Yule have finally done it! They slayed the "dodo." Not the real bird of course–that beast has been extinct since the mid to late 17th century but rather the "dodo bird" conjecture first articulated by Saul Rozenzweig, Ph.D.… — read more
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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
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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