Web-only Feature

Web-only Feature

Top 5 Psychotherapy Posts for 2014

Season’s Greetings from Division 29!

This past year has been a big year for us. In October, we changed our name to The Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.

All year we (Brad Brenner and Amy Ellis) worked to create a brand new website, designed to showcase the brilliant psychotherapy content of expert clinicians, researchers, instructors, and students. In October, we launched our new site and we’re so pleased that people have embraced it making it the most successful version of our website in our Society’s history!

We’re particularly proud of our online-only Special Features that we publish to the site every Sunday from international and forefront leaders in psychotherapy research and practice. We’re grateful for their contributions to our website and to the Society.

To say thank you for making our website a stunning success, this week we are bringing you a Top 5 Countdown of our most visited and talked about content and scholarly contributions in 2014.


Top Psychotherapy Article #1. Epistemic Trust, Psychopathology and the Great Psychotherapy Debate

Peter Fonagy, OBE, FMedSci; Patrick Luyten, Ph.D., Chloe Campbell, and Liz Allison, DPhil

How can applying attachment theory to our understanding of psychopathology inform and guide the process of psychotherapy? Fonagy et al. (2014) posit that the development of epistemic trust (i.e., authentic teachings from a caregiver to a child; in essence, interpersonal knowledge-sharing utilizing reflective functioning) in the psychotherapy relationship contributes to a reduction in symptoms. The authors outline several processes of communication that enhance psychotherapy's effectiveness from this standpoint of fostering epistemic trust as the root of change.

Top Psychotherapy Article #2. How We Say Goodbye: Research on Psychotherapy Termination

Jennifer A. Hardy, Ph.D. and Susan S. Woodhouse, Ph.D.

Termination may be difficult, challenging, and trying in the therapy process...for the therapist. But research has shown that, more often than not, clients reflect on termination as a positive experience and feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. However, adding in a history of losses or unresolved grief may mitigate this effect; similarly, attachment style, empathy, and transferential reactions may also moderate these findings, suggesting that further research is needed.

Top Psychotherapy Article #3. The Implications of Attachment Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy

Meifen Wei, Ph.D.

Attachment theory focuses on understanding our model of self and others. Utilized in psychotherapy, attachment theory can be used to explicate how past experiences and interactions with caregivers have contributed to an individual's current maladaptive coping strategies or other symptom presentations. In this article, Dr. Wei outlines research on the the mediating factors between attachment and mental health outcomes as possible interventions that can be used in psychotherapy.

Top Psychotherapy Article #4. Psychotherapy for Individuals with Psychopathy/Antisocial Personality Disorder

Farid Chakhssi, Ph.D., Corine de Ruiter, Ph.D., & David Bernstein, Ph.D.

Drs. Chakhssi, de Ruiter, and Bernstein raise the issue that therapists may be wary of treating psychopathy due to treatment-resistance. They found that Schema Therapy, which focuses on modifying early life maladaptive schemas may actually prove beneficial in reducing future risk of violence. The authors share a case example in which the patient showed significant improvements over the course of treatment with Schema Therapy.

Top Psychotherapy Article #5. Ten Things to Remember About Common Factor Theory in Psychotherapy

Kevin M. Laska, Ph.D. and Bruce E. Wampold, Ph.D.

Drs. Laska and Wampold recently published an article in Psychotherapy, free and available for download. What makes an intervention empirically- or evidence-based? The article focuses on the common factor approach to understanding the effective pieces of  psychotherapy treatment. From this perspective, it may be that the common components of psychotherapy outweigh the unique components of individual interventions, contributing to efficacy of the treatment. Drs. Laska and Wampold have also provided a companion piece written specifically for our website so stay tuned for more about these fascinating and debate-generating topic.

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Dr. Amy E. Ellis is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Trauma Resolution & Integration Program (TRIP) at Nova Southeastern University. She provides training and consultation on the provision of trauma-informed affirmative care and treating complex clinical cases. She is also has a private practice with a clinical focus in treating trauma, eating disorders, and personality disorders, and a special niche focusing on trauma-informed affirmative care for the LGBTQ+ community. She is a Consulting Editor on three of APA’s journals and recently served as Guest Editor of APA Division 42’s journal Practice Innovations on a special issue focusing on the role of evidence-based relationship variables in psychotherapy with sexual and gender minority individuals. Her current clinical and research interests focus on underserved populations who have increased exposure and risk to trauma (i.e., men, LGBTQ+, racial and ethnic minorities), tailoring evidence-based trauma treatments to these populations, and training and supervision in the field of trauma. She is currently the co-Principal Investigator of a large national grant funded through the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute focusing on the effectiveness of a peer-delivered online motivational interviewing intervention for GBTQ+ men with histories of sexual trauma.

Cite This Article

Ellis, A. E., & Brenner, B. (2014, December). Top 5 countdown of most visited articles for 2014. [Web article]. Retrieved from http://www.societyforpsychotherapy.org/top-5-psychotherapy-articles-for-2014

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