Why is this man laughing?

May 4, 2011 By scottdm 3 Comments

May 4th, 2011
Copenhagen, Denmark

Just finished my first day of a two week trip covering spots in Denmark and Holland. Yesterday, I traveled to Copenhagen from Hilo, Hawaii where I was presenting for the Hawaiian Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Gay Barflied (pictured on the far left above) spent years lobbying to bring me to the “Big Island” for the conference, where I spoke about the latest research on expertise and excellence in the field of behavioral health. I met so many dedicated and talented clinicians in Hilo, including marriage and family therapist, Makela Bruno-Kidani (pictured in the middle photo above) who started the day off with a traditional Hawaiian chant and then presented me with two beautiful lei to wear during the event.

On a break, Gay mentioned an article that appeared in the May/June 1995 issue of AHP Perspective. In it, she said, Maureen O’Hara, president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, quoted one of the first articles me and my colleagues wrote on the common factors, “No More Bells and Whistles” (I’ll upload a copy to the “publications and handouts” section of the website as soon as I’m back in the States). Carl Rogers, she said, would have been laughing (happily, that is) had he read the findings we cited documented the lack of differential efficacy of competing treatment approaches. We had, in essence, proved him right!

“It turns out,” OHara wrote, “that Miller, Hubble, and Duncan come to similar conclusions. Carl Rogers was right. After all our forays into the dizzing arcana of paradoxical interventions, inner children, narrative therapy, EMDR, behaviorism, psychopharmacology, bioenergetics, TA, Jungian analysis, psychodrama, Gestalt, and so on down the entire list of hundred brand named therapies, what actually creates change is the…creation of a relationship between client and therapist…”.

I’d never seen the article before. It brought back very positive memories about the journey that has led most recently to the study of excellence. Indeed, as we point out in the lead article in the upcoming May/June 2011 issue of the Psychotherapy Networker, relationships are not only the “sine qua non” of healing for clients but are responsible for the professional growth for therapists.

Are all treatments approaches equally effective?

January 9, 2010 By scottdm Leave a Comment

Bruce Wampold, Ph.D.

Late yesterday, I blogged about a soon-to-be published article in Clinical Psychology Review in which the authors argue that the finding by Benish, Imel, & Wamppold (2008) of equivalence in outcomes among treatments for PTSD was due to, “bias, over-generalization, lack of transparency, and poor judgement.” Which interpretation of the evidence is correct? Are there “specific approaches for specific disorders” that are demonstrably more effective than others? Or does the available evidence show all approaches intended to be therapeutic to be equally effective?

History makes clear that science produces results in advance of understanding. Until the response to Ehlers, Bisson, Clark, Creamer, Pilling, Richards, Schnurr, Turner, and Yule becomes available, I wanted to remind people of three prior blog posts that review the evidence regarding differential efficacy of competing therapeutic approaches. The first (and I think most illuminating)–“The Debate of the Century“–appeared back in August. The post featured a link to a debate between Bruce Wampold and enthusiastic proponent of “empirically supported treatments,” Steve Hollon. Listen and then see if you agree with the large group of scientists and practitioners in attendance who thought–by a margin of 15:1–that Bruce carried the day.

The second post–Whoa Nellie!– commented on a 25 Million US$ research grant awarded by the US Department of Defense to study treatments for PTSD. Why does this make me think of “deep throat’s” admonition to, “follow the money!” Here you can read the study that is causing the uproar within the “specific treatments for specific disorders” gang.

Third, and finally, if you haven’t already read the post “Common versus Specific Factors and the Future of Psychotherapy,” I believe you’ll find the thorough review of the research done in response to an article by Siev and Chambless critical of the “dodo verdict” helpful.

DODO BIRD HYPOTHESIS PROVEN FALSE! Study of PTSD finally proves Wampold, Miller, and other "common factor" proponents wrong

January 8, 2010 By scottdm 3 Comments

Researchers Anke Ehlers, Jonathon Bisson, David Clark, Mark Creamer, Steven Pilling, David Richards, Paula Schnurr, Stuart Turner, and William Yule have finally done it! They slayed the “dodo.” Not the real bird of course–that beast has been extinct since the mid to late 17th century but rather the “dodo bird” conjecture first articulated by Saul Rozenzweig, Ph.D. in 1936. The idea that all treatment approaches work about equally well has dogged the field–and driven proponents of “specific treatments for specific disorders” positively mad. In a soon to be published article in Clinical Psychology Review, the authors claim that bias, overgeneralization, lack of transparency, and poor judgement account for the finding that “all therapeutic approaches work equally well for people with a diagnosis of PTSD” reported in a meta-analysis by Benish, Imel, & Wampold (2008).

I guess this means that a public admission by me, Wampold, and other common factors researchers is in order…or maybe not! Right now, we are writing a response to the article. All I can say at this point is, “unbelievable!” As soon as it becomes available, you’ll find it right here on this blog. I’ll be drawing inspiration from Saul Rosenzweig who passed away in 2004. It was such an honor to meet him. Still working at 96 years of age.