Assessment & Treatment
Focused on the critical aspects of assessment and treatment in psychotherapy, this section offers resources, guidelines, and discussions on effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to improve client outcomes.
277 articles found
Helping Psychotherapists Adopt Productive Responses to Suicidal Patients
The death of a patient by suicide is the professional event most feared by psychologists (Pope & Tabachnick, 1993). Fortunately, evidence has accumulated for the effectiveness of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy for the treatment of suicidal patients, although other interventions are promising as well (Calati […]
Samuel Knapp, Ed.D., ABPP
June 1, 2022
Toward a New Eclectic Approach
Have you ever felt that your clients are not benefiting from your psychotherapy approach? If not yet, then be prepared to experience the inevitable “hopelessness” one day. It seems almost impossible that your approach, solely, is going to fit all the challenges which different clients will bring in the session. However, there might be a […]
Fitim Uka, PhD
May 16, 2022
Improving Results for Digital Therapeutics
The past decade has witnessed the rise of digital therapeutics. This multi-billion-dollar healthcare segment provides consumer self-help tools with behavioral health as a dominant focus. A number of companies offer these programs, including Silver Cloud, Ginger, and Spring Health. The company studied here, Learn to Live, has self-paced digital modules for stress, depression, anxiety, and […]
George (Jeb) S Brown, Ph.D. + 1 more
May 1, 2022
Two Aspects Are Preventing Psychotherapy from Being More Effective
This article proposes that there are two aspects in the current mainstream view of how psychotherapy is understood that are preventing it from advancing as a science and being considerably more effective. One factor is that psychotherapy does not understand its subject matter. It is proposed that the client’s experiencing be recognized as the subject […]
Jeffrey Von Glahn, Ph.D.
April 17, 2022
Behavioral Health Technology Platforms and the Implementation of Measurement-Based Care in Psychotherapy
Measurement-based care (MBC) is a data-driven approach to delivering health care services. MBC encompasses an array of clinical tools, such as routine outcome monitoring (ROM), feedback informed treatment (FIT), and measurement feedback systems (MFS). Collectively, these practices center around the routine administration of treatment outcomes measurement and processing the scores with clients about treatment progress. […]
Matteo Bugatti, Ph.D. + 4 more
March 24, 2022
Emotional Experience of Psychotherapists
Abstract Psychotherapists respond to clients’ emotions in their daily work. However, little is known about therapists’ emotional experience and how different patterns of emotional experience are related to therapist empathy. Two samples of therapists, 1 from English-speaking countries (n = 314) and 1 from Mainland China (n = 589), completed measures of emotional reactivity, emotional […]
Harold Chui, Ph.D. + 1 more
February 27, 2022
Dads Experience Postpartum Anxiety Too
Have you ever heard of postpartum anxiety in women? How about for men? Postpartum depression is commonly discussed for mothers and fathers, but what about anxiety? Research often subsumes postpartum anxiety with postpartum depression, especially since there is not a separate diagnosis or subtype for postpartum anxiety in The Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders […]
Kourtney Schroeder, Psy.D.
February 13, 2022
Anorexia Nervosa and Perfectionism
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is highly comorbid with other clinically significant pathologies and extremely prevalent among the general population. Stigmas associated with AN, such as vanity or self-responsibility attributions, may prevent a someone from receiving help. Instead, they may reach out for symptoms unrelated to disordered eating, such as co-occurring depression. Despite this, folks with AN […]
Zoe Ross-Nash, PsyD + 1 more
January 16, 2022
Time to Take a Closer Look
In March of 2020, therapists faced an unprecedented challenge and, in many ways, a glorious opportunity. COVID-19 and lockdowns meant that it was no longer possible or safe to provide psychotherapy in a “business as usual” way. Video psychotherapy, or telemental health, which had been considered by many as the lesser cousin of in-person therapy, […]
Barbara J. Thompson, Ph.D. + 3 more
December 2, 2021
Predictors of Change in Patient Treatment Outcome Expectation
Abstract This article examined patients’ change in outcome expectation across cognitive-behavior therapy for generalized anxiety disorder, as well as participant factors that are associated with both pretreatment outcome expectation and expectation change. Findings: On average, patients’ outcome expectation becomes more positive over time. Moreover, the degree of such change is influenced by several baseline and early treatment patient factors […]
Andreea Visla, PhD + 2 more
November 28, 2021
Investigation of the Psychometric Properties and Treatment Outcomes for a Brief Measure of Trauma Related Symptoms in Adolescents
Abstract The purpose of this article is to explore the psychometric properties of a brief measure of trauma-related symptoms among adolescents in psychotherapy, the ACORN Trauma Measure, as compared to a general outcome questionnaire called the ACORN Global Distress Measure. The ACORN Trauma Measure includes three trauma-specific items intended to give clinical insight into the […]
Daryl Mahon, D.SoC, MA + 2 more
November 23, 2021
Helping Patients Interpret Ambivalence about Change
Context More and more, I notice therapy clients asking directly for insight. They want to understand why they dilly-dally on their goals, waffle on difficult decisions, envision change but don’t plan for it. “…If I feel I want to do X, and I say I want to do X, why can’t I just do it?” […]
Dana R. Falk, Ph.D.
November 15, 2021