President’s Column 61 (3): The Need for Collaboration

In life, social connections matter. In my last presidential column (https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/presidents-column-61-2/) I wrote in detail about the value of belonging. At an individual level, healthy social connections are a strong predictor of happiness and longevity (Allen et al., 2022; Cambieri, 2024; Waldinger & Schulz, 2023). Positive social connections can provide us with emotional support, offer tools and resources for problem-solving, and make available unique learning opportunities (particularly when those with whom we are connected are different from us). But what about at the organizational level? Can organizations benefit from collaborating with other professional organizations? Let me share an example of what can happen when professionals are not connected.

This summer I read an interesting book giving a historical account of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, which occurred 40 years ago. The most fascinating part of the book to me, was the description that it provided about the efforts to contain and clean up the nuclear waste. This was uncharted waters for the scientists who were tasked with the job and they had to act as quickly as possible (there were worries that the waste would potentially trigger another explosion, possibly spread through the air and ground water, or even perhaps melt all the way through the Earth’s crust). Even though the scientists assigned to the task did not know exactly what to do, there were others across the globe who did have knowledge that could help them. However, there were many barriers that prevented any type of collaboration from taking place. Initially, one of the biggest barriers was political – the Soviet Union did not want the world to know that an accident had occurred. So the scientists had to keep things as quiet as possible and when they did reach out to colleagues in other countries, they had to ask for “hypothetical” advice for cleaning up after a “small incident.” Even when more details became known by the world, the scientists at Chernobyl were instructed to continue to minimize the scope of the problem in all communications with colleagues. Once others finally realized what had happened though, there were many who wanted to help. However, another problem was still present – the feasibility of sharing knowledge with those who needed it. Researchers from all over the world started to send their data to the Chernobyl site. It came in boxes and boxes of paper files that filled rooms from floor to ceiling. At first the Chernobyl scientists started reading through it all, searching for anything that would be helpful to them. In the end though, they realized that to find the answers they needed, it would take weeks or months for them to dig through everything. As a result, they decided to just perform all the experiments on their own, in essence, duplicating work that had already been completed by others. Forty years ago, the type of international collaboration that could have been so helpful in containing and cleaning up the nuclear waste, was just not possible.

Fortunately, we now live in a world where connections can fairly easily be made with colleagues across most boarders, and information can be shared almost instantaneously. We also have tools in place that can aid in summarizing vast amounts of knowledge and can even assist in translations between languages. Our potential for learning from each other is perhaps greater than it has ever been in the past. But effort is needed to step out of our silos and engage in collaborations with others. As the President of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy (SAP), one of my initiatives this year has been to strengthen our collaborations. For this reason, I chose to highlight our international partnerships during our programing at the 2026 American Psychological Association (APA) Annual Convention in Washington DC. For those of you who were not able to attend those events, I would like to report on them in my third Presidential Column. 

Our Partnership with Oriental Insight

This year we celebrated the 10^th anniversary of our partnership with Oriental Insight (OI). OI is a private, non-profit organization that focuses on providing a professional home for mental health therapists in China. It aims to do this through providing educational and training programing on the science and practice of psychotherapy, and by conducting research on psychotherapy effects. Back in 2016 at the APA Convention in Denver Colorado, SAP signed a formal agreement with OI in order to “promote psychotherapy in China and the United States, facilitate dissemination of psychotherapy research across language and national boundaries, promote collaboration in research and training between the two organizations, and to recruit non-APA affiliate members in China to join our organization” (https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/new-partner-oriental-insight-organization-chinese-psychologists/). I remember fondly sitting in the room when the agreement was signed. I was excited for the partnership, but wondered if maybe it would only be a symbolic act, akin to just naming a park after a sister city or posting a sign somewhere stating that a collaboration exists. I could have never imagined what this partnership would actually accomplish over the past decade. Currently, about 1/6 of SAP’s membership comes from OI. Beyond just membership, through the online webinars and trainings that we have collaboratively hosted, we have been able to reach tens of thousands of mental health providers in China, sharing the latest advancements in the field with them. The collaboration between our organizations can also be seen in the many joint research projects that have been published between OI and SAP colleagues. 

This year in Washington DC at the APA Convention, we wanted to do something special to recognize how meaningful the partnership has been. Luyao Ma, the OI officer who oversees the partnership with SAP, was able to attend the convention in person. During the business meeting, we presented her and OI with a small gift (a nice executive clock with our logos engraved on it) that symbolizes our past and future connection. Luyao Ma was then able to share some kind words about what the partnership with SAP has meant to their organization. Videos from Rod Goodyear and Guangrong Jiang (the two scholars who were most influential in creating the SAP/OI collaboration) were also played, with both individuals reflecting on the past as well as the potential future. Overall, I found the event to be highly meaningful and I am excited to see all that we will accomplish together over the next 10 years.

Our Connections with the SPR and SEPI

At the APA Convention we were also able to highlight our partnerships with the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR; https://www.psychotherapyresearch.org) and the Society for an Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI; https://www.sepiweb.org/). These two professional organizations share similar missions with SAP, and many of our members likewise hold memberships in one or both of them. Our partnerships allow us to advertise and recruit more professionals to join SAP and also provide an avenue for expanding the research, practice, and training networks for our members. In return, SAP often carries out the CE certification process for conferences and webinars put on by these groups. Of particular note, we also administer a joint poster award with both organizations. While we have been doing this for a few years now with SEPI, I am pleased to share that we have now initiated an ongoing joint poster award with SPR as well. This year at the SPR conference in Osaka Japan, SAP was able to recognize Manuel Meglio with the inaugural award for his poster titled Data-driven Classification for Estimating Clinical Cut-offs in an Argentine Adult Sample. For the SEPI conference in Malibu California, we recognized Audrey Purins with the award for her poster titled From Perceptions to Connections: Exploring PsyD Students’ Attitudes toward Psychosis. In return, SPR recognized Xu Li with the award at our conference in Washington DC for his poster Belief, Bond, and Relief? Revisit Links Among Client Expectations and Outcomes. SEPI is still working on their adjudication process. I believe these poster awards are particularly important because they encourage (the awards come with a $500 prize) the scientific pursuits for projects across the globe that align with SAP’s mission. They also provide a broad exposure of SAP and its values to a wider audience of students and professionals that may not otherwise learn about our organization.

Lessons Learned from my Presidential Panel at APA

This year at the APA convention, I also chose to dedicate my Presidential Programming Hour to a panel discussion focused on international collaborations. This panel included Dennis Kivlighan (Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland in College Park, known for his ongoing fruitful research collaborations with colleagues in Taiwan and Italy), Xu Li (Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and director of SAP’s International Domain, known for his active research and clinical collaborations with colleagues in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Israel, and Native American tribal groups in the United States), and Luyao Ma (Hubei Oriental Insight Mental Health Institute in China and also coordinator of the institute’s collaboration projects with SAP). When asked about the value and importance of international collaborations, all three panel members suggested that our understanding of psychotherapy is limited when we attempt to view it from just one vantage point. Instead, multiple perspectives allow for a more complete picture, including greater insight into how certain psychological concepts play out in different cultural and geographical contexts. Their thoughts reminded me of the ancient Indian parable of a group of blind men who encountered an elephant for the first time. Because they each felt a different part of the elephant’s body, they each came away with very different views of the animal. It was not until they communicated and discussed together, that they are able to obtain a more wholistic understanding. The panel members then discussed strategies for initiating and retaining international collaborations. Each recognized the importance of humility and listening, making sure all parties have a voice and get to contribute to the development of the projects. They also encouraged an understanding of the culture of the collaborators, not just in terms of how culture might impact the specific project aims, but also to facilitate ongoing connections and relationships between partners. They suggested sharing meals together or going to cultural events when possible. For initial networking, they shared that professional organizations are a great way to meet potential collaborators. Within professional organizations, individuals from different backgrounds and countries are already often coming together coalescing around shared purposes and goals. Out-of-the-blue emails to potential colleagues were also suggested to be surprisingly effective, as most are excited to explore new collaborative possibilities with others.

Moving Forward

Overall, I believe the APA Convention was very successful in highlighting SAP’s existing partnerships and for encouraging future collaborations for the organization and the field. This is an area that we have experienced tremendous success in the past and I believe it is an area that could fruitfully lead to new growth. With this in mind, we are actively engaging in efforts to establish new collaborations. For example, I recently began talks with colleagues in India, exploring the possibility of SAP being a co-sponsor of scientific content for a conference to be held in Bengaluru in 2027. Our International Domain, under the leadership of Xu Li as director and Changming Duan and Dana Tzur-Bitan as committee co-chairs, is also highly active with efforts to expand our international presence. They have a committee that includes members from more than a dozen countries. Through this committee, they have overseen the translation of SAP materials into different languages, put on many workshops and webinars, held SAP socials at international conferences, and organized several special awards and grants that have been given out by the division. For those of you who are interested in engaging in more international collaboration in your work (whether science, training, or practice), SAP is definitely a place where you can make that happen. If you would like to know more, please feel free to reach out to me (joshua.keith.swift@gmail.com) or our international domain director (lixu.bnu@gmail.com) at any time. We have lots of ideas for ways that you can get involved.