Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on therapist expertise and development. We delve into two groundbreaking studies that challenge the assumption that therapists automatically improve with experience. Discover the surprising findings that experience alone may not lead to better client outcomes, and explore the power of deliberate practice and outcome monitoring in fostering therapist improvement. We discuss the implications of these findings for clients, therapists, and policymakers, and offer practical strategies for therapists to continuously enhance their skills and effectiveness. Tune in to gain valuable insights into the path to mastery in psychotherapy.

Papers

Do psychotherapists improve with time and experience? A longitudinal analysis of outcomes in a clinical setting

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316408245_Do_psychotherapists_improve_with_time_and_experience_A_longitudinal_analysis_of_outcomes_in_a_clinical_setting

Creating a Climate for Therapist Improvement:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308173684_Creating_a_Climate_for_Therapist_Improvement_A_Case_Study_of_an_Agency_Focused_on_Outcomes_and_Deliberate_Practice

If you like your tips just a little more human, check out our youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@PREP-Registrar

Looking for a supervisor to implement some of these great ideas?
https://findasupervisor.com.au

Early career psychologist looking for up to date cutting edge CPD?
https://learning.prep.clinic

Looking to become a psychology supervisor?
https://stap.org.au

In this episode we look at the efficacy effectiveness gap, that is why do so many therapies look amazing in a research setting, but then deliver less than stellar results in the real world.

In this episode we take a slightly different approach. Although the episode was inspired by a paper by Halford Pepping and Petch exploring this gpa in the couples therapy literature, it got the two of us curious to know whether the same gap existed in other areas.

So while the episode is about the couples literature, we took a wide angle view to consider children and individual psychotherapy as well. We hope you enjoy.

Original Paper - Halford Pepping and Petch
https://www.aetsbtraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Halford-2016efficacy-effectiveness-gap.pdf

Child and Adolescent Paper Weisz and Colleagues
https://weiszlab.fas.harvard.edu/files/jweisz/files/weisz_et_al_1995_psyc_bull_meta.pdf

Adult Psychotherapy Consumer reports study Seligman
https://clinica.ispa.pt/sites/default/files/4._the_effectiveness_of_psychotherapy_the_consumer_reports_study.pdf

Dose Effect Hansen Lambert and Foreman
https://clinica.ispa.pt/sites/default/files/10-_the_psychotherapy_dose-response_effect_a_0.pdf

Great Psychotherapy Debate Wampold
https://api.taylorfrancis.com/content/books/mono/download?identifierName=doi&identifierValue=10.4324/9780203893340&type=googlepdf

If you like your tips just a little more human, check out our youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@PREP-Registrar

Looking for a supervisor to implement some of these great ideas?
https://findasupervisor.com.au

Early career psychologist looking for up to date cutting edge CPD?
https://learning.prep.clinic

Looking to become a psychology supervisor?
https://stap.org.au

Are some therapies doing more harm than good? This episode delves into the controversial topic of potentially harmful therapies (PHTs), exploring the evidence behind treatments that may cause more harm than help.

We examine a meta-scientific review of several therapies, including:

•Boot camps for conduct disorder, which are modeled after military basic training.

•Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), which was developed for emergency responders exposed to severe stress.

•DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), which aims to limit underage substance use.

•Expressive-experiential psychotherapies, which focus on re-experiencing and intensifying strong emotions.

•Grief counseling, designed to assist individuals in coping with the death of a close contact.

•Scared Straight interventions, which involve at-risk juveniles being confronted by inmates.

This episode explores whether these therapies have sufficient evidence to justify their continued use. The discussion includes the challenges of identifying harmful therapies, and how the replicability crisis in psychology has led to a reevaluation of the credibility of clinical literature.

We look at the importance of evaluating the evidential value of claims of harm by considering factors beyond statistical significance, including:

•Misreporting of statistics

•Statistical power

•Replicability Index (R-Index)

•Bayes factors

Findings from this meta-scientific review highlight that the evidence underlying many PHTs is weak or ambiguous. However, some interventions such as Scared Straight and CISD show stronger evidence for potential harm. The episode concludes with a call for ethical research and practice that prioritizes the safety of patients. Clinicians are urged to critically evaluate treatments and avoid those with weak evidence or potential for harm. Researchers are encouraged to conduct more rigorous, collaborative trials, and to investigate the scientific basis of therapeutic mechanisms.

Read the article for yourself here
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339718791_Potentially_harmful_therapies_A_meta-scientific_review_of_evidential_value

If you like your tips just a little more human, check out our youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@PREP-Registrar

Looking for a supervisor to implement some of these great ideas?
https://findasupervisor.com.au

Early career psychologist looking for up to date cutting edge CPD?
https://learning.prep.clinic

Looking to become a psychology supervisor?
https://stap.org.au