University students frequently face significant distress. With increasing rates of students accessing University Counseling Center (UCC) services, it is critical for UCCs to provide targeted prevention and intervention efforts. However, researchers have conducted minimal research regarding the relationship of students' declared majors and mental…

We examined the validity of the Shorter Psychotherapy and Counseling Evaluation (Halstead, Leach, & Rust, 2007). Results supported incremental predictive validity (up to 12%) over the Outcome Questionnaire--10.2 (OQ-10.2), predictive validity with the Outcome Questionnaire--45 and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems--32, and convergent…

Background: Parents' personal psychotherapy experiences can shape their expectancies of mental health treatment for themselves and offspring. For instance, parents with negative psychotherapy experiences may view mental health treatment as less likely to be helpful--and seek treatment at lower rates--for themselves and their children. However,…

This study examined the contribution of executive functioning (EF) to improvements in psychiatric symptomatology following I Can Succeed (ICS; Kopelman-Rubin, 2012) psychotherapy, a skill-enhancement intervention designed to target EF and socio-emotional aspects of specific learning disabilities (SLD). Forty adolescents with SLD underwent ICS in…

This paper will consider the inter-relationship of a number of overlapping disciplinary theoretical concepts relevant to a strengths-based orientation, including well-being, salutogenesis, sense of coherence, quality of life and resilience. Psychological trauma will be referenced and the current evidence base for interventions with children and…

Five decades of randomized trials research have produced dozens of evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for youths. The EBPs produce respectable effects in traditional efficacy trials, but the effects shrink markedly when EBPs are tested in practice contexts with clinically referred youths and compared to usual clinical care. We considered why…

Objective: Crits-Christoph, Connolly Gibbons, Hamilton, Ring-Kurtz, and Gallop (2011) used generalizability theory to critique the measurement of the therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy research, showing that the dependability of alliance scores may be quite low, which in turn can lead to attenuated alliance-outcome correlation estimates. Method…

The effectiveness of group psychotherapy has been empirically studied and supported over several decades; however, there remains much to understand regarding the specific factors contributing to effective group psychotherapy. The current study uses Kashy and Kenny's (2000) actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) to examine the relationship…

Many meta-analyses of comparative outcome studies found a substantial association of researcher allegiance (RA) and relative treatment effects. Therefore, RA is regarded as a biasing factor in comparative outcome research (RA bias hypothesis). However, the RA bias hypothesis has been criticized as causality might be reversed. That is, RA might be…

This study sought to assess the association of client- and therapist-rated real relationship with each other and with the outcome of brief psychotherapy. It also aimed to determine whether changes over time in perceptions of the real relationship and increasing convergence between clients' and therapists' ratings of the real relationship were…

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether systematic reviews investigating psychotherapeutic interventions for depression are affected by publication bias. Only homogeneous data sets were included, as heterogeneous data sets can distort statistical tests of publication bias. Method: We applied Begg and Mazumdar's adjusted rank…

Depression and cigarette smoking are recurrent, interacting problems that co-occur at high rates and--especially when depression is chronic--are difficult to treat and associated with costly health consequences. In this paper we present an integrative therapeutic framework for concurrent treatment of these problems based on evidence-based…

Objective: Interpersonal theories posit that chronically depressed individuals have hostile and submissive styles in their social interactions, which may undermine their interpersonal effectiveness and maintain their depression. Recent findings support this theory and also show that patients' interpersonal impact messages, as perceived by their…

Shelter-recruited adolescents are known to have high rates of substance abuse and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Many studies have documented these mental health concerns, but only a small number of studies have tested interventions that may be useful for ameliorating these vulnerabilities. The current study…

Ideally, students requesting services should be seen quickly at their university counseling center to increase the likelihood of a successful treatment outcome. However, in these times of ever-increasing demand for university counseling services and the challenges of securing resources to keep up with that demand, the reality of prompt…