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The Most Important Psychotherapy Book
Late last year, I began a project I’d been putting off for a long while: culling my professional books. I had thousands. They filled the shelves in both my office and home. To be sure, I did not collect for the sake of collecting. Each had been important to me at some time, served some — read more
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Is your therapy making your clients worse? The Guardian Strikes Again
A while ago, an article appeared in The Guardian, one of the U.K.’s largest daily newspapers. “Counselling and Therapy can be Harmful,” the headline boldly asserted, citing results of a study yet to be published. It certainly got my attention. Do some people in therapy get worse? The answer is, most assuredly, “Yes.” Research dating — 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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Do you do psychotherapy?
You know psychotherapy works. Forty years of research evidence backs up your faith in the process. And yet, between 1998 and 2007, psychotherapy use decreased by 35%. People still sought help, they just went elsewhere to get it. For instance, use of psychotropic drugs is up 40% over the last decade. A recent article in — read more
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Is the "Summer of Love" Over? Positive Publication Bias Plagues Pharmaceutical Research
Evidence-based practice is only as good as the available "evidence"–and on this subject, research points to a continuing problem with both the methodology and type of studies that make it into the professional literature. Last week, PloS Medicine, a peer-reviewed, open access journal of the Public Library of Science, published a study showing a positive… — read more
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Goodbye Freud, Hello Common Factors
Gary Greenberg certainly has a way with words. In his most recent article, The War on Unhappiness, published in the August issue of Harper’s magazine, Greenberg focuses on the "helping profession"–its colorful characters, constantly shifting theoretical landscape, and claims and counterclaims regarding "best practice." He also gives prominence to the most robust and replicated finding in psychotherapy outcome research: the "dodo bird verdict." Simply… — read more
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So you want to be a better therapist? Take a hike!
How best to improve your performance as a clinician? Take the continuing education mutliple-choice quiz: a. Attend a two-day training; b. Have an hour of supervision from a recognized expert in a particular treatment approach; c. Read a professional book, article, or research study; d. Take a walk or nap. If you chose a, b,… — read more
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ICCE Membership Hits 1000!
Just yesterday, the membership of the International Center for Clinical Excellence burst through the 1000 mark, making it the largest community of behavioral health professionals dedicated to excellence and consumer-driven, outcome-informed clinical practice (CDOI). And there’s more news…click on the video below. — read more
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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
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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
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"What Works" in Norway
Dateline: Tromsø, Norway Place: Rica Ishavshotel For the last two days, I’ve had the privilege of working with 125+ clinicians (psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and addiction treatment professionals) in far northern Norway. The focus of the two-day training was on "What Works" in treatment, in particular examining what constitutes "evidence-based practice" and how to… — read more
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Outcomes in Oz
Greetings from beautiful Melbourne, Australia! For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be traveling the up and down the east coast of this captivating country, conducting workshops and providing consultations on outcome-informed clinical work. Actually, I’ve had the privilege of visiting and teaching in Australia about once a year beginning in the late 1990’s. Back then, Liz… — read more
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Common versus Specific Factors and the Future of Psychotherapy: A Response to Siev and Chambless
Early last summer, I received an email from my long time friend and colleague Don Meichenbaum alerting me to an article published in the April 2009 edition of the Behavior Therapist–the official "newsletter" of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies–critical of the work that I and others have done on the common factors. Briefly, the article,… — read more
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Top Resources for Top Performers
Since the 1960’s, over 10,000 "how-to" book on psychotherapy have been published. I joke about this fact at my workshops, stating "Any field that needs ten thousand books to describe what it’s doing…surely doesn’t know what its doing!" I continue, pointing out that, "There aren’t 10,000 plus books on ‘human anatomy,’ for example. There are a handful! … — read more