Psychotherapy research and practice

About this book

It's ironic that in a profession that prides itself on helping people communicate, the mental health field hasn't found a satisfying way for clinicians and researchers to carry on meaningful conversations. Why is it that when practitioners look for clinical guidance, they don't normally turn to psychotherapy research findings? Why do many researchers feel that the results of their work are not reaching practitioners? In this lively book of intellectual diplomacy, leading voices in both research and practice - including such notable figures as Otto Kemberg, Lester Luborsky, Donald Spence, and Mardi Horowitz - debate what went wrong in their relations and what can be done to create more fruitful alliances. Unlike most edited books, this spirited collection of voices is arranged as a focused forum, which grew out of weekly meetings of the Vanderbilt University psychotherapy research team. In the first section, five renowned practitioners describe why research fails to inform practice and what changes might improve the situation. In the second section, major researchers wrestle with the clinician's charges and concerns. For the first time, the basic forces driving a wedge between research and practice are thoroughly examined. The contributors to this book expose how studies have often become so methodologically rigorous that clinical meaning is bled dry, and how insurance companies' misuse of research findings has affected research funding. Most important, this book reminds us of where the two camps have successfully influenced each other and how this can be built upon (such as doing more studies of the process of therapeutic change). Although there will probably always be a gap dividing researchers and practitioners, this important book advances the aims of both by mapping out all the faults and showing how and where bridges can be built.