The evidence shows that using standardized measures to solicit feedback from clients regarding progress and their experience of the working relationship improves retention and outcome. How much? By 25% () And now, major news out of California. Psychologists -- who are required to earn 36 hours of continuing education ...
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I never met my uncle Marc. He died decades before I was born. I did know him, however. His mother --my maternal grandmother -- made sure of that. One story has stayed with me from the first time I heard it. It was about the day he passed. He ...
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Decades of research shows the client’s experience of the relationship is one of the best predictors of their engagement and progress in care ().  As such, when outcome and alliance data indicate a course of treatment is “at risk” for a negative or null outcome, or drop out, it ...
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"It is an uncomfortable fact," observes physician John Birkmeyer in Lancet, "that a patient's odds of undergoing surgery often depend more on where [they] live than on [their] clinical circumstances." Indeed, studies have consistently shown that the number of tonsillectomies, prostatectomies, hip replacements, hysterectomies, even days spent in hospital, ...
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At first, we simply hand scored the measures. Next came an Excel® spreadsheet. It not only automated administration and scoring, but plotted progress from session to session on a graph. Purple represented the client's actual score. The blue, green, and red lines showed the 50th, 75th and 25 percentile, ...
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I've never been enthusiastic about categories, whether aligning myself with a particular therapeutic approach or assigning a diagnostic label to a client. Any order achieved seemed to come at the expense of freedom and possibility. Lately, however, I've found myself feeling an affinity for a particular classification scheme. Maybe ...
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It's a question that comes up at some point in most trainings on feedback-informed treatment (FIT): "Can I use FIT with all my clients?" Having encountered it many times, I now have a pretty good sense of the asker's concerns. Given our training as mental health professionals, we ...
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The date was August 26th, 1910. The place, Leyden, Holland -- better known as the "City of Discoveries" owing to its long scientific heritage. The people present were two giants of Viennese society, composer Gustav Mahler and psychoanalyst, Dr. Sigmund Freud. By the time of their meeting, the method ...
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The data are clear: working feedback-informed improves both retention and effectiveness (). Studies further show FIT achieves these effects, in part, by improving responsiveness to the individual client -- particularly those at risk for a negative or null outcome or dropout from treatment (, ). Such positive results notwithstanding, what ...
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Books, blogposts, interviews, and "how to" manuals ... Each covers a topic in a particular way. I honestly love them all. That said, despite the massive amount of information available to practitioners interested in FIT and deliberate practice, certain questions pop up time and again. At some point along ...
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Eight years ago, I was in Calgary, Alberta Canada, listening to psychologist Wolfgang Lutz talk about his research on using feedback in therapy. Others, including myself, had already presented data documenting the benefits of feedback-informed treatment (FIT), including lower dropout rates and improved outcomes. Dr. Lutz agreed, but was ...
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I know, I know. You're thinking, "A post about the next pandemic?!" Some will insist, "We're not done with the current one!" Others will, with the wave of a hand counter, "I'm so tired of this conversation, let's move on. How about sushi for lunch?" Now, however, is the ...
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Late last year, I began a project I'd been putting off for a long while: culling my professional books. I had thousands. They filled the shelves in both my office and home. To be sure, I did not collect for the sake of collecting. Each had been important to me ...
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Deliberate practice is hot.  More workshops and trainings are being offered on the topic than ever before.  In the last year, a veritable slew of books has also appeared, with many being tied to a specific therapeutic modality.  Given that the topic was introduced to the field a mere 15 ...
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"Why don't more therapists do FIT?" a grad student asked me during a recent consultation.  Seated nearby in the room were department managers, supervisors, and many experienced practitioners. "Well," I said, queuing up my usual, diplomatic answer, "Feedback informed treatment is a relatively new idea, and the number of therapists doing ...
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It's one of my favorite lines from one of my all time favorite films.  Civilian Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) accompanies a troop of "colonial marines" to LV-426.  Contact with the people living and working on the distant exomoon has been lost.  A formidable life form is suspected.  The Alien.  Ripley is on board ...
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