How Cool is Kuhl? A Man with Vision on a Mission

April 19, 2013 By scottdm Leave a Comment

This week, my colleague and friend, Dr. David Mee-Lee, sent me a link to a blogpost written by Don Kuhl. Actually, I was already a subscriber to Don’s Minful MIDweek blog (you should be too), but my travel this week had prevented me from reading his latest installment. His posts always leave me inspired and give me something to think about. This week was no different. More on that in a moment.

In the meantime, let me tell you about Don. He is the founder and CEO of The Change Companies, a company whose mission is to create tailored materials and programs to support behavioral change for special populatons. And create they do. Hundreds of bright, attractive, highly readable publications and guided workbooks for use by professionals and the people they serve. Their material is exhaustive and comprehensive, including adult behavioral health, criminal justice, education and prevention, clinical assessment, and faith-based programs. A side note, it was Don and his skillful team at The Change Companies that produced the ICCE Feedback Informed Treatment and Training Manuals. If you’ve not seen them, you should. They are the cutting edge of information about FIT.

What is most striking about Don, however, is his passion. I met him at a conference in San Francisco nearly a decade ago. On several occasions, he flew to Chicago from his home base in Carson City, Nevada just to meet, talk, and share ideas. The photo above is from one of the meetings he arranged. Don is devoted to improving the quality and experience of behavioral health services for professionals and clients alike. Simply said, Don Kuhl is cool.

In his blogpost this week, Don wrote about that meeting with Jim Prochaska, David Mee-Lee, me, and Bill Miller. He referred to it as a “highlight” of his recent professional life, a lucky event resulting from his mindful pursuit of relationships with “people who have smiles on their faces and goodness in their hearts.”

My thought? I was and am the lucky one. Thanks Don. Thanks Change Companies. Keep up the good work.

What is the Real Source of Effectiveness in Smoking Cessation Treatment? New Research on Feedback Informed Treatment

November 24, 2012 By scottdm Leave a Comment

When it rains, it pours! So much news to relay regarding recent research on Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT). Just received news this week from ICCE Associate Stephen Michaels that research using the ORS and SRS in smoking cessation treatment is in print! A few days prior to that, Kelley Quirk sent a copy of our long-awaited article on the validity and reliability of the Group Session Rating Scale. On that very same day, the editors from the journal Psychotherapy sent proofs of an article written by me, Mark Hubble, Daryl Chow, and Jason Seidel for the 50th anniversary issue of the publication.

Let’s start with the validity and reliability study. Many clinicians have already downloaded and been using Group Session Rating Scale. The measure is part of the packet of FIT tools available in 20+ languages on both my personal and the International Center for Clinical Excellence websites. The article presents the first research on the validity and reliability of the measure. The data for the study was gathered at two sites I’ve worked with for many years. Thanks to Kelley Quirk and Jesse Owen for crunching the numbers and writing up the results! Since the alliance is one of the most robust predictors of outcome, the GSRS provides yet another method for helping therapists obtain feedback from consumers of behavior health services.

Moving on, if there were a Nobel Prize for patience and persistence, it would have to go to Stephen Michaels, the lead author of the study, Assessing Counsellor Effects on Quit Rates and Life Satisfactions Scores at a Tobacco Quitline” (Michael, Seltzer, Miller, and Wampold, 2012). Over the last four years, Stephen has trained Quitline staff in FIT, implemented the ORS and SRS in Quitline tobacco cessation services, gathered outcome and alliance data on nearly 3,000 Quitline users, completed an in-depth review of the available smoking cessation literature, and finally, organized, analyzed, and written up the results.

What did he find? Statistically significant differences in quit rates attributable to counselor effects. In other words, as I’ve been saying for some time, some helpers are more helpful than others–even when the treatment provided is highly manualized and structured. In short, it’s not the method that matters (including the use of the ORS and SRS), it’s the therapist.

What is responsible for the difference in effectiveness among therapists? The answer to that question is the subject of the article, “The Outcome of Psychotherapy: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” slated to appear in the 50th anniversary issue of Psychotherapy. In it, we review controversies surround the question, “What makes therapy work?” and tip findings from another, soon-to-be-published empirical analysis of top performing clinicians. Stay tuned.

Implementation Science, FIT, and the Training of Trainers

March 8, 2012 By scottdm Leave a Comment

The International Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE) is pleased to announce the 6th annual Training of Trainers event to be held in Chicago, Illinois August 6th-10th, 2012. As always, the ICCE TOT prepares participants provide training, consultation, and supervision to therapists, agencies, and healthcare systems in Feedback-Informed Treatment (FIT). Attendees leave the intensive, hands-on training with detailed knowledge and skills for:

Training clinicians in the Core Competencies of Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT/CDOI);
Using FIT in supervision;
Methods and practices for implementing FIT in agencies, group practices, and healthcare settings;.
Conducting top training sessions, learning and mastery exercises, and transformational presentations.

Multiple randomized clinical trials document that implementing FIT leads to improved outcomes and retention rates while simultanesouly decreasing the cost of services.

This year’s “state of the art” faculty include: ICCE Director, Scott D. Miller, Ph.D., ICCE Training Director, Julie Tilsen, Ph.D., and special guest lecturer and ICCE Coordinator of Professional Development, Cynthia Maeschalck, M.A.

Join colleagues from around the world who are working to improve the quality and outcome of behavioral healthcare via the use of ongoing feedback. Space is limited. Click here to register online today. Last year, one participants said the training was, “truly masterful. Seeing the connection between everything that has been orchestrated leaves me amazed at the thought, preparation, and talent that has cone into this training.” Here’s what others had to say: