Psychotherapy process variables distinguishing the inherently helpful person from the professional psychotherapist.

Therapeutic hours conducted by analytically oriented, experientially oriented, and nonprofessional ("inherently helpful" college professors) therapists were rated along 8 process dimensions—therapist exploration, therapist directiveness, feeling attention, task orientation, therapeutic relationship, patient exploration, patient negativism, and patient psychic distress. Patients were 25 unmarried male college students with elevated scores on MMPI Scales 2, 7, and 0 who were participating in a psychotherapy outcome study. Two advanced clinical psychology graduate students independently rated videotapes of each 3rd therapy session on the Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale. Between-group differences were obtained on 6 of the 8 dimensions. Only patient negativism and patient exploration failed to yield significant effects. These results replicate the findings of previous analog investigations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Utilization of psychotherapy research by practicing psychotherapists.

Surveyed 279 31–82 yr old Division 29 (Psychotherapy) members to examine the perceived gap between psychotherapy research and practice, correlates of research utilization, perceived problems of psychotherapy research, and research needs of therapists. A 51-item pretested mailed survey had a return rate of 73%. Results show that Ss reported low rates of psychotherapy research utilization and stated that they gained their most useful information from experience with clients. Behavioral and nondynamic orientations, as well as research production and consumption, were modestly correlated with utilization. Ss were critical of research that ignored the complex realities of the therapy situation. They favored research on typical populations and modes of treatment, especially if it described the treatment carefully and focused on process–outcome links, significant change events, and the therapeutic alliance. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pop sociology and the psychotherapist.

Suggests that G. W. Albee (see record 1977-29846-001) holds a model of a psychotherapist as one who loosens inhibitions and frees sensuality. It is suggested that psychotherapy actually attempts to integrate all impulses and realities within a value or philosophic context, not a context of hedonistic sensuality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The responsible psychotherapist.

Contends that psychologists in general, and psychotherapists in particular, have been concerned with both ethical and legal liability. Contracts, informed consent, and participatory decision making have been recommended as requisites for an ethical psychotherapy. However, when the various types of responsibility (role, causal, capacity, and liability) are differentiated, it becomes clear that the recommendations entail an inconsistent set of assumptions. These recommendations ignore difficulties in establishing liability. It is suggested that since there may be inherent conflicts between effective psychotherapy and the ethical recommendations that have been made, future recommendations should be relative to a particular theory of psychotherapy. (97 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specialization in psychotherapy: From psychotherapist to psychooncologist.

The professional journey of a traditional psychotherapist into the specialty of psychooncology is described. The tasks of the psychooncologist in working with patients with cancer as well as the patient's parents, partner, and children are discussed. Clinical vignettes and specific psychotherapeutic interventions are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychotherapist and one-way intimacy.

Several prominent psychotherapists have asserted that many therapists use their relationships with clients to gratify desires for controlled, "one-way" intimacy in which they are less vulnerable than the clients. The present experiment tested the hypotheses that (1) therapists have higher needs for control and intimacy than the normative population; (2) need for control is negatively related to quantity and quality of family involvement; and (3) therapists categorized as pseudo-intimate have higher need for control than those categorized as intimate. The FIRO-B and assessments of structured interviews by blind raters provided data on 26 male practicing psychotherapists (aged 29–61 yrs) and 28 male doctoral students (aged 24–48 yrs). None of the hypotheses were supported. Therapist and trainee need scores were similar, and both groups had lower needs for inclusion and needs to be influenced by others than are the norm. Roughly two-thirds of the therapists were categorized as intimate and one-third as pseudo-intimate. Results do not support the idea that therapists gratify their neurotic needs through working with clients. Implications for future research and for therapist selection and training are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical considerations for the peace activist psychotherapist.

Discusses clinical and ethical issues raised by the stance of A. Nelson (see record 1986-11569-001) in his consideration of awareness and "response ability" in the nuclear age. Dangers of overzealousness, the temptation to apply the awareness paradigm too broadly, the potential harmful effect of heightened awareness, and the threat to professional neutrality are outlined. Four points are offered regarding the beliefs and ethical responsibilities of citizens who are psychologists. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychotherapist and the managed care setting.

This study represents a beginning effort to understand how alternative health care delivery systems affect psychotherapists and psychotherapy practice style. Professionals from various mental health disciplines employed in staff-model health maintenance organizations (N?=?43) served as interviewees. Therapists answered objective and semistructured questions about their work setting, "burn-out," graduate training, and the evolution of self and practice style. Although methodological limitations prohibit meaningful and valid generalizations, the results suggest that alternative health care settings may serve as catalysts by creating an atmosphere that shapes and influences the therapist to develop more eclectic, short-term, problem-focused psychotherapy practice habits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Change process research.

Argues that research on change processes is needed to help explain how psychotherapy produces change. To explain processes of change, it will be important to measure 3 types of outcomes—immediate, intermediate, and final—and 3 levels of process—speech act, episode, and relationship. Emphasis will need to be placed on specifying different types of in-session change episodes and the intermediate outcomes they produce. The assumption that all processes have the same meaning (regardless of context) needs to be dropped, and a context-sensitive process research needs to be developed. Speech acts need to be viewed in the context of the types of episodes in which they occur, and episodes need to be viewed in their relationship context. This approach would result in the use of a battery of process instruments to measure process patterns in context and to relate these to outcome. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Key competencies of the psychodynamic psychotherapist and how to teach them in supervision.

Four of Rodolfa et al.’s (2005) competencies in professional psychology—relationship, self-reflection, assessment-case conceptualization, and intervention—are key for the psychodynamic psychotherapist. Relationship lies at the heart of what is understood to be curative about psychodynamic psychotherapy. Self-reflection implies a complex and highly developed process that includes but goes beyond Rodolfa et al.’s and Kaslow, Dunn, and Smith’s (2008) definitions. Competent assessment, diagnosis, and case conceptualization entails making inferences about unconscious processes by observing the client and also one’s own experience, and integrating these inferences with theory. Effective psychodynamic intervention is derived from what the psychotherapist has experienced, processed, and conceptualized about the relationship with the client and about the client’s internal object world. An extended vignette shows these competencies emerging in a psychotherapist-in-training, facilitated by an intense interaction with a supervisor. Although the supervisory and clinical tasks are different, the supervisor provides a relationship experience that models these same competencies for the supervisee and catalyzes their development in the supervisee. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling as stochastic process: Fitting a Markov chain model to initial counseling interviews.

Tested the hypothesis that the probabilistic structure underlying counseling interviews is Markovian. The goodness of fit of a 1st-order Markov chain model to 6 counseling interviews was assessed by using chi-sup-2 tests of homogeneity and by simulating sampling distributions of selected process characteristics against which the same characteristics in the actual interviews were compared. The model provided an adequate fit to 4 of the 6 interviews and should provide a useful tool for further investigations into the character and course of the counseling process. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special series on advances in psychotherapy process research.

Introduces the special series on advances in psychotherapy process research. This special series of articles attests to the fact that psychotherapy process and outcome are becoming closely linked targets of empirical investigation. However, it also attests to the lingering presence of a persistent difference in viewpoints among clinical researchers. The series begins with two general overviews of the field of process research, one from an author who advocates its theoretical and practical value (Marmar, 1990) and the other from an author who has traditionally been critical of process analyses (Garfield, 1990). From this overview, the next two articles are more specific, addressing, respectively, the methods used in theory-driven (Luborsky, Barber, & Crits-Christoph, 1990) and observation-driven (Hill, 1990) methods. The series is concluded by an effort to reconceptualize the diverse viewpoints adopted in this field and to sound a note of conciliation (Shoham-Salomon, 1990). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

True and false self in the development of the psychotherapist.

Explored the psychotherapist's struggle to achieve a position of security, using interviews with 15 doctoral students in clinical psychology who described their experiences of learning to do psychotherapy and the development of their identities as psychotherapists. Areas of experience within the psychotherapy training context and also in Ss' personal lives were considered. During the course of their training, Ss were seen to develop self-protective competencies, which are conceptualized in terms of the theory of the true self and the false self developed by D. W. Winnicott (1965). The psychotherapist false self is linked to commonly used terms such as professional identity and identity as a psychotherapist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An approach to psychotherapy change process research: Introduction to the special section.

This special section has a dual focus. One is on psychotherapy change research. The other is to explicate an approach to develop a program of research that builds on 2 aspects of scientific discovery: decomposition of observed phenomena and localization of specific elements that may combine to produce a complex whole. These aspects are considered within an ordered framework of 8 steps in the development and testing of a model, moving from discovery to model construction, validation, and prediction of complex outcomes. Studies on psychotherapy change processes were selected, after a masked review, to represent different levels in developing a program of research. Although it is argued that the early steps of decomposition and localization are important when developing a program of research, current editorial practices in first-tier journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, typically consider this type of study to be too preliminary for a scientific archival journal. Should this practice be revisited? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The training psychotherapist in a therapeutic community.

Discusses the impact of a therapeutic community on the training psychotherapist and indicates potential difficulties in working with psychotic patients in a setting that demands personal vulnerability and that may reawaken the therapist's yearnings for communal participation and belonging. The psychotherapist may develop a communal transference as a result of his/her repressed communal object-hunger. The "mad psychotherapist" "Dr. Doctor," and the "nag therapist" characterize defensive postures taken by psychotherapists dealing with the stress of treating psychotic patients in a therapeutic community. As a result of their communal participation, therapists have the opportunity to work through this transference which then enhances their psychotherapeutic efforts. The psychotherapist further matures when toward the end of training, he/she confronts the social reality of the patients' continued hospitalization. The therapist's role in assisting the social rehabilitation of his/her patients is discussed. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The sexist psychotherapist: An ephemeral species.

Comments on G. Stricker's (see record 1977-29882-001) article on research implications for psychotherapy with women, noting that Stricker presents a confusing and circular argument regarding the evidence of sexism in psychotherapy. The relationship between therapists' attitudes and their actual behavior in therapy was not addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)