A project to change longterm interpersonal patterns: finding a therapist
20th February 2015
Needs-Beliefs-Behaviours See too Nissen-Lie et al's "Patient and therapist perspectives on alliance development: Therapists' practice experiences as predictors" with its finding about the toxic effects on client rated therapeutic alliance produced by the "leaking" of unspoken critical therapist. "Humble warmth" "Therapist predictors of early patient-rated working alliance: A multilevel approach" …
Practice-based evidence can complement evidence-based practice so very well
4th February 2015
Yesterday I wrote a blog post "Routine Outcome Monitoring can really help therapists clarify where they need to try harder". Today's post extends this extremely important point. About twenty years ago Howard and colleagues (Howard, Moras, Brill, Martinovich, & Lutz, 1996) introduced a crucial new approach for improving our outcomes. …
Routine Outcome Monitoring can really help therapists clarify where they need to try harder
3rd February 2015
I recently wrote a couple of blog posts - "Psychotherapy (and psychotherapist) outcomes are good but largely stagnant" and "Fascinatingly, therapists themselves vary considerably in their effectiveness". In the second of these posts I commented "A paper published just last month (Green, Barkham et al. 2014) found that the 25% …
Fascinatingly, therapists themselves vary considerably in their effectiveness
21st January 2015
I wrote a post yesterday on the good, but largely stagnant, outcomes currently being achieved in psychotherapy. In today's post I highlight the fascinating finding that psychotherapists themselves vary considerably in their effectiveness. If we can help those with poorer outcomes to begin matching those with better, great gains are …
Psychotherapy (and psychotherapist) outcomes are good but largely stagnant
20th January 2015
I have been asked to write a chapter on the importance of obtaining regular feedback on client progress in a book on psychotherapist self-practice & self-reflection. This initial section (see below) of a draft of the chapter comments on the current state of psychotherapy itself: (Note the ideas in this …
Some current research evidence for therapeutic uses of reading & writing (2nd post)
13th January 2015
Yesterday's post and today's are combined and downloadable as a Word doc or as a PDF file. therapeutic benefits from writing: Quite often “therapeutic” approaches that primarily involve reading also include writing components and vice-versa. Probably the most extensively studied form of therapeutic writing is the large body of research …
Some current research evidence for therapeutic uses of reading & writing (1st post)
12th January 2015
I was asked by a friend to write a short piece on research evidence backing up therapeutic uses of reading & writing to be used in a local initiative supporting health workers in a diverse range of settings. Today's and tomorrow's post give the piece with hyperlinks to the various …
Treatment of prolonged grief disorder
26th December 2014
A couple of recent research studies have underlined the value of specific forms of psychotherapy for complicated grief reactions: Shear, M. K., et al. (2014). "Treatment of complicated grief in elderly persons: a randomized clinical trial." JAMA Psychiatry 71(11): 1287-1295. IMPORTANCE: Complicated grief (CG) is a debilitating condition, most prevalent …
Most people agree on the healthy key values they want to live by and this is real grounds for hope
14th December 2014
"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men." Confucius I've long been a fan of Professor Tim Kasser's work. He published his fine first book "The high price of materialism" back in 2002 - see this good 5 minute YouTube video to get a sense …
Recent research: articles from autumn journals
10th December 2014
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - Endnote - which currently contains over 21,400 abstracts. I also regularly tweet about emerging research, so following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (click on the relevant icon …