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.
280 articles found
When It Is Not a Good Fit
Abstract Group psychotherapy provides unique opportunities for clinical errors in the selection of patients and composition of therapy groups. This article introduces some of the difficulties and complexities that can be associated with group composition and patient selection errors. Clinical vignettes from psychodynamic/interpersonal psychotherapy groups are used to illustrate three variations of group composition and selection errors. The […]
David Kealy, Ph.D. + 3 more
September 19, 2016
Personality Disorder Treatment in Private Practice
Personality disorders are a common phenomenon encountered by psychologists in private practice as well as other health care settings. The prevalence of personality disorders in the general population is estimated to be about 9%, according the results from a National Institutes of Health funded national comorbidity study (Lenzenweger, Lane, Loranger, & Kessler, 2007). Having the […]
Jeffrey J. Magnavita, Ph.D., ABPP
August 12, 2016
7 Ways to Be More Mindful
The incorporation of a Westernized and decontextualized version of mindfulness into psychotherapy over the last two decades has been a significant trend, while for a hip segment of the popular culture, it has become nothing less than a rage. Although not yet as ubiquitous in the marketplace as yoga, it is certainly nipping at its […]
Steven J. Hendlin, Ph.D.
July 31, 2016
Caring for a Patient with Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a disabling, chronic psychiatric disorder that occurs in approximately 1% of the population (Goldner, Hsu, Waraich & Somers, 2002; Mueser & Jeste, 2008). It has severe consequences for patients with the disorder, as well as their caregivers who often present with high levels of psychological distress (Awad & Voruganti, 2008). In addition to […]
Giulia Suro, Ph.D. + 1 more
July 17, 2016
Beyond Acceptance
While lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth are at high risk for emotional and behavioral problems, research has documented that family rejection increases these risks and family acceptance decreases them (Ryan, Russell, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2010). In this article, I will apply concepts from family systems theory to work with families who are struggling […]
Joseph A. Micucci, Ph.D., ABPP
July 3, 2016
Does Client Attachment Matter in Eating Disorder Treatment?
Theory, research, and clinical experience have led us to believe that attachment patterns and processes are highly relevant to the treatment of eating disorders – a point that has also been argued persuasively by colleagues in the field (Tasca & Balfour, 2014; Tasca, Ritchie, & Balfour, 2011). Thus, in the design of the Copenhagen Bulimia […]
Sarah Ingrid Franksdatter Daniel + 2 more
July 3, 2016
Client Attachment in a Randomized Clinical Trial of Psychoanalytic and Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy for Bulimia Nervosa
Abstract In the context of a randomized clinical trial of psychoanalytic psychotherapy (PPT) versus cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for bulimia nervosa (BN), this study performed secondary analyses of (a) the relation between attachment and pretreatment symptom levels, (b) whether client pretreatment attachment moderated treatment outcome, (c) whether change in client attachment was associated with symptomatic change, and (d) whether […]
Sarah Ingrid Franksdatter Daniel + 2 more
June 14, 2016
Humility and Care in the Mental Health Treatment of Brazilian Immigrant Clients
“It took me months to find you,” said Luciana, during her intake session, discussing the difficulty of finding a clinician with whom she could converse in her native Portuguese language. While there are mental health settings in the Boston area that serve Portuguese speaking individuals and families, these resources pale in contrast to the significant […]
Luana Bessa, Ph.D.
June 12, 2016
Prolonged Exposure in VA Residential PTSD Treatment Programs
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is one of the largest comprehensive health care systems in the world. Although unique in some regards, it can serve as an ideal laboratory to study the implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) given the abundance of federal funding and top-down administrative support. The VA provides an organized, centralized […]
Vanessa Simiola, Psy.D + 2 more
May 8, 2016
Help-Seeking Among Airmen in Distressed Relationships
Abstract Although a substantial proportion of service members returning from a combat deployment report individual emotional and behavioral disorders as well as intimate relationship difficulties, previous studies indicate that only a minority actually seek mental health services. Little is known about factors that predict help-seeking in this population. We first review key findings from the […]
Douglas K. Snyder + 5 more
March 6, 2016
Top 10 Things Learned After Two Decades of Tracking Client Treatment Progress
Introduction In the course of a program of research aimed at preventing treatment failure our research group at Brigham Young University has had the opportunity to track the session-by-session treatment progress of clients undergoing psychotherapy. These clients have received treatment in a wide variety of clinics and in private practice as well as inpatient care. […]
Michael J. Lambert, Ph.D.
February 14, 2016
Digital Weight Management
Obesity is a nationwide epidemic that is measured by a person’s body mass index (BMI), or weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (Devlin, Yanovski, & Wilson, 2000; Shugart, 2013). In 2012, two-thirds of American adults were considered to be overweight or obese (Mitchell, Garcia, de Zwaan, & Horbach, 2012), and it is […]
Sara Assar, M.A. + 2 more
February 7, 2016