In the last issue of the Bulletin, we began exploring the very timely issue of the use of letters of recommendation (LORs) by clinical and counseling graduate programs as a tool to select students with high potential to be effective therapists. Not only do programs use LORs routinely for this process, but LORs have received […]
According to the American Psychological Association’s 2019 report on Admissions, Applications, and Acceptances, over 40,000 individuals applied to clinical psychology programs in the 2016-2017 academic year, with acceptance rates of 12-30% (Michalski et al., 2019). Due to an increasing interest in clinical and counseling psychology (Norcross & Sayette, 2014) and a limited amount of space […]
"When the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way" (Stevens, 1970, p. 7). Looking beyond what now would be considered her sexist language, we might appreciate that Barry Stevens had a knack for stating wisdom in down-to-earth terms, terms so simple and clear that the truth shone through […]
At the time of this writing, an estimated one-third of the world’s population is in “lockdown” due to a novel coronavirus (Kaplan et al., 2020). In addition to the loss of life and physical health consequences, the economic and psychological impact of the virus and these containment measures has already been massive and may well […]
Ample research suggests that therapists differ in their level of effectiveness (Blow et. al., 2007; Wampold, 2001). Even more striking is that therapist effects appear to be larger than treatment effects (e.g., Lindgren et al., 2010). These findings suggest that “who” the therapist is may be more important than the type of treatment used. Moreover, […]
On March 16, 2019, the esteemed international magazine The Economist published an article titled “Talk is Cheap: What Disasters Reveal About Mental-Health Care.” The article extolled the virtues of using lightly trained “psychotherapists” to deal with emotional problems in countries that have a shortage of mental health professionals. After highlighting the role of stressors such […]
In offering further commentary to the article on Caucasian therapist self-disclosure to cultural minority populations, it is important to begin by more generally acknowledging both individual and between group differences. This is an important beginning because aspects of cultural competency are so often avoided as a larger subject through the statement ‘everyone is different.’ While […]
Research shows clinicians are less likely to recognize eating disorder pathology in racial and ethnic minority women than in White women, even after controlling for the severity of self-reported disordered-eating symptoms (Becker, Franko, Speck, & Herzog, 2003; Gordon, Brattole, Wingate, & Joiner, 2006). These findings indicate that the problematic and unsupported stereotype of ethnic minority […]
A Horse Race … Psychological treatments that are intended to be fully therapeutic and that are provided by trained professionals (bona fide psychotherapy; Wampold & Imel, 2015; Wampold et al., 2011) have been found to be effective compared to no-treatment and treatment-as-usual for individuals who suffer from a number of disorders, including anxiety and depression […]