Background: Although there is an established body of evidence attesting to the dose-effect relationship in psychotherapy with non-disabled adults, the issue as to whether such a relationship exists for persons with intellectual disabilities has not been previously examined. Dose-effect essentially concerns the amount of psychotherapy required to…

The objective of this study was to test the feasibility, acceptability and helpfulness of group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT-PA) for depression in pregnant adolescents. Method: Two open clinical trials were conducted of IPT-PA delivered in group format in a New York City public school for pregnant girls. Study 1 tests IPT-PA for management of…

This article illustrates a method of testing models of change in individual long-term psychotherapy cases. A depressed client was treated with 208 sessions of control mastery therapy (CMT), an unmanualized approach that integrates elements of psychodynamic therapy (PDT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Panels of experts developed prototypes…

Research designed to establish the empirical underpinnings of psychotherapy relies heavily on arbitrary metrics, and researchers often do not know if clients receiving an evidence-based treatment have improved in everyday life or changed in a way that makes a difference, apart from the changes the arbitrary metrics may have shown. In other words,…

Traumatic stress due to conflict and war causes major mental health problems in many resource-poor countries. The objective of this study was to examine whether trained lay counselors can carry out effective treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a refugee settlement. In a randomized controlled dissemination trial in Uganda with 277…

Although improvement of clients' state is a central concern for psychotherapy, relatively little is known about how change in outcome variables unfolds during psychotherapy. Client progress may follow highly variable temporal courses, and this variation in treatment courses may have important clinical implications. By analyzing treatment progress…

This study followed treatment responders from a randomized controlled trial of adults with major depression. Patients treated with medication but withdrawn onto pill-placebo had more relapse through 1 year of follow-up compared to patients who received prior behavioral activation, prior cognitive therapy, or continued medication. Prior…

A substantial portion of the college student population experiences affective disorders. This case study presents the conceptualization, course of treatment, and outcomes for a male college student presenting for counseling with depression. A review of Adlerian, cognitive-behavioral, and Gestalt techniques is provided. (Contains 1 figure.)

This exploratory study used qualitative methods to better understand how youths in a residential setting perceive their relationships with the counselors. Using focus group methodology, the study focused on how youth describe the relationship, what staff qualities the youth are able to identify as important in engaging and maintaining the…

This paper describes the first two years of intensive psychotherapy with a six-year-old boy diagnosed with autism. I explore the many ways in which he retreated from reality, most frequently by taking refuge inside the maternal body or flying off into an imaginary space world. He fragmented his identity and that of his objects by using the…

This study estimates pretreatment-posttreatment effect size benchmarks for the treatment of major depression in adults that may be useful in evaluating psychotherapy effectiveness in clinical practice. Treatment efficacy benchmarks for major depression were derived for 3 different types of outcome measures: the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression…

Richard Bandler and John Grinder developed neuro-linguisitc programming (NLP) after observing "the magical skills of potent psychotherapists" Frederick Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erikson. They compiled the most effective techniques for building rapport, gathering data, and influencing change in psychotherapy, offering them only as…

Examined posttreatment consolidation of experience with a script-theoretic analysis of transference dreams. A content-analytic scheme applied to three during-treatment and three posttreatment dreams showed in posttreatment dreams a significant increase in positive affects, a decrease in negative affects, and more effective initatives by the…

Discusses research designs in which psychotherapy treatments are compared to placebo conditions, and suggests that chemotherapy and psychotherapy research efforts are complementary rather than analogous. Recommends the elimination of placebo groups in psychotherapy research. Discusses the negative connotation of psychotherapy as a placebo. (JAC)

Although it is well established that psychotherapy is remarkably effective, the change process in psychotherapy is not well understood. Psychotherapy is compared with medicine and cultural healing practices to argue that critical aspects of psychotherapy involve human processes that are used in religious, spiritual, and cultural healing practices.…