Research-Training Network

Welcome to the Research-Training Network for The Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy

Mission: The Research-Training Network (RTN) is a resource sharing, collaborative network of trainers, trainees, and researchers. The RTN aims to facilitate in-depth, representative studies that will enhance the field’s understanding of training and education in professional psychology.

The RTN is a resource sharing, collaborative network of trainers, trainees, and researchers. The RTN aims to facilitate in-depth, representative studies that will enhance the field’s understanding of training and education in professional psychology.

The RTN can help increase sample size, facilitate collaborations, foster creativity, and enhance the fields’ understanding of training, supervision, and education in psychotherapy.

All comers are welcome, we have opportunities for researchers who want lead a project or to support it, as well as for trainers who want to lead a project or support a project. Here are the basics of the RTN:

  1. Researchers and/or Trainers identify and briefly define the proposed project.
  2. The project is then listed on the Division 29 website and emails go out to the Division membership and other related organizations.
  3. Other researchers and trainers contact the lead of the project.
  4. The project group convenes meetings to initiate the project.

We have identified four participation options:

Researcher Primary: Person who would like to lead or co-lead a project.

Researcher Secondary: Person who would like to participate in some way (e.g., methodologist, statistics, content expert), but not lead or co-lead.

Trainer(ee) Primary: Person who is open to facilitate data collection ranging from minimal (e.g., handing out surveys) to more intense (e.g., test a supervision intervention) at their university/setting.

Trainer(ee) Secondary: Person who would like to facilitate data collection on a minimal level (e.g., hand out surveys).

 

What is going on now?

We have three active collaborations seeking additional collaborators: 

 
PI: Jeff Reese: One of the biggest challenges of doing quality psychotherapy process and outcome research is having access to a setting that will permit you to collect data from clients and therapists.  Training clinics are an obvious outlet for conducting such research, but also challenging because generating adequate sample sizes can take time.  A potential solution to this is the creation of a training clinic research network.  Such a network could be used by training clinics to identify others who are utilizing the same process and outcome measures or want to reach out to other clinics to collaborate on projects.  Many of us do this informally, but having a shared mechanism to facilitate research projects offers the possibility of larger studies done in potentially less time. 
 
The specific focus of the research is open and will be developed over time by the network; and current topics being proposed include utilizing client feedback in therapy and supervision. If you are interested in joining this network or learning more information please contact Dr. Jeff Reese at jeff.reese@uky.edu.
 

PI: Jesse Owen: The training in multicultural psychotherapy processes is in its infancy. Although there are multicultural guidelines for practice, training, and education, and some have suggested multicultural competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills, and awareness) as a framework to help train psychotherapists, we are proposing an alternative approach. We are focusing on psychotherapists’ multicultural orientation (MCO). The MCO model includes three interrelated domains – cultural humility, cultural opportunities, and cultural comfort. There is initial data supporting these three elements as significant predictors of therapy outcomes. However, there is no information regarding training therapists to enhance their MCO. Dr. Owen and colleagues have developed a training module and seek others who would like to test this training approach to enhance therapists’ MCO and decrease disparities in psychotherapy outcomes based on clients’ cultural identities. 
If you are interested in joining this network or learning more information please contact Dr. Jesse Owen, jesse.owen@du.edu.

 

PI: Marla Vannucci We’d like to invite you to participate in an upcoming multi-site study that explores the effect of student expectations of clinical supervision on clinical outcomes.

The supervision literature already has begun to discuss the impact of students’ clear understanding of roles and responsibilities in supervision on supervision outcomes, such as student satisfaction and student competency growth.  Very little research has explored the impact of supervision processes on client outcomes, and no studies yet have investigated how student expectations and understanding of supervision may impact client outcomes.

Our project involves students and their supervisors placed in training clinics at all levels of training.  Students access an online program which randomly assigns them to a test group that reviews information that explains the nature of clinical supervision, or to a control group, that reviews an unrelated document.  Students and supervisors complete brief, 10-minute online surveys.  Site client outcome data, connected to student therapists and supervisors via assigned code, will be used to measure client outcomes.  The project is designed to be minimally intrusive and taxing for sites, students, supervisors, and clients.

We would be delighted to share additional information or speak with you by phone to answer any further questions.  We look forward to speaking with you about our project! Feel free to contact either Marla Vannucci, the principle investigator, at mvannucci@adler.edu or Doug Whiteside at douglas-whiteside@uiowa.edu.