The research agenda: the vital need for empirical research in child psychotherapy

In this paper I shall describe how work discussion groups offered to staff on-site as part of a mental health in schools outreach project can have a significant impact on the thinking, attitudes and culture within a school. Through the use of some detailed examples of these work discussion groups in action, I hope to illustrate the way these groups can enable staff to enhance their observational skills, develop a deeper understanding of the factors that impact on learning, behaviour and teaching, and reduce staff stress. Finally, I hope to highlight the ways in which such groups not only extend staff skills in engaging with pupils at risk of emotional breakdown and school exclusion, but can also promote a learning environment for all, in which development and growth is promoted at a personal, professional and whole-school level.     

Therapeutic neurosis: The need to resist the healing process in psychotherapy

Client resistance to therapy is necessary and needed. In the Freudian view, “optimal resistance” provided therapeutic opportunity to help clients constructively work through issues instead of acting them out inappropriately. Although resistance seems to perpetuate neurotic defenses, successful analysis of resistance is the key to understanding clients' unconscious fears and wishes. As seen by the Bioenergetic analyst, clients' will- power to hold onto their neuroses, their resistance to the healing process, needs to be softened so as to allow full expression of their fears. Fear of life is likened to the wish to die. Resolution of resistance ultimately converts to client ability to live through the pleasure and pain of his/her true life reality.     

A meta-analysis of school-based studies of psychotherapy

The purpose of this study was to apply the meta-analysis technique to school-based studies of psychotherapy. Thirty-three controlled studies were identified that met the criteria for meta-analysis. Although research efforts in this area offer a relatively small number of well-designed studies, the results of the meta-analysis indicate that psychotherapy in the schools can be viewed as at least moderately effective. Evidence was also found of the greater efficacy of group and behavioral theory interventions and interventions that target observed behaviors and problem-solving abilities.     

On the need for structurally competent counselling and psychotherapy: Neoliberal ideology,disability and the psy disciplines

This article highlights and problematises the psy disciplines' articulations with neoliberalism, with a particular focus upon disability and upon counselling and psychotherapy. Recent years have witnessed burgeoning scholarly interest in the potential complicities of the psy professions in a neoliberal agenda of individualisation, pathologisation and responsibilisation of human suffering. Such complicities are, in state therapy settings, driven by a growing need for these professions to offer cost-effective, evidence-based interventions to secure funding in an increasingly competitive market. Whilst the entwining of neoliberal ideology with therapy practices may be innocuous for some, it is contended that disabled people may be at particular risk of harm. A case is then made for training and practice to foreground structural competency, an awareness of how therapy encounters and client concerns are shaped by socio-structural factors, including, but not limited to, politics and political ideology. This would require not only an appreciation of the sociopolitical context in which therapy unfolds and its indubitable shaping of subjectivities, but also greater recognition of disability as a source of social inequity and oppression, as opposed to an individual phenomenon. Moreover, structural competency would require theoretical and demographic diversity in training and practice, which, in turn, would necessitate identifying and addressing barriers to inclusion for disabled people. Points raised are deemed of particular importance given the emergence of long COVID.     

Making a case for case studies in psychotherapy training: A small step towards establishing an empirical basis for psychotherapy training

The evidence debate in psychotherapy pays little attention to developing an evidence base for training practices. Understanding effective training requires an examination of what makes training work. This article examines the role of case studies in psychotherapy training. This has not been articulated explicitly or researched systematically in spite of its cardinal importance. An analysis of the role of case studies in psychotherapy training is presented. Reading, watching, or hearing about cases can offer novice psychotherapists access to a closed world; access to psychological theory in action; access to whole courses of therapy; access to different approaches; access to significant moments; access to the therapeutic relationship; access to a wide range of client types; access to working in different contexts; and the opportunity of identifying with therapists and clients. Writing or presenting cases offer students the opportunity of: learning to integrate information into a relevant whole; being in the ‘hot seat’; learning to give appropriate feedback; assessing the validity of interpretations, inferences, and interventions; adapting methods to suit the client; and learning to collaborate with other professionals. The paper presents directions for future research into psychotherapy training, specifically proposing an international survey of training practices at psychotherapy training institutions.     

Group process studies within the scope of directed dynamic group psychotherapy

Footing on specific pr?misses of Intended Dynamic Group Psychotherapy three different types of development are described on the basis of factor analytical investigations towards the behaviour and experience of the group members and of the therapeut. At a period of 34 sessions of stationary psychotherapy data of 15 groups were comprehended and globally related to the effectivity. There are shown up the problems of therapeuticle behaviour, of indication and of effectivity.     

Lessons learned from studies of psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder via video teleconferencing

This article summarizes two ongoing randomized controlled trials that compare individual in-person psychotherapy with psychotherapy provided using video teleconferencing for military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. We describe training methods, populations, technology, challenges, successes, and lessons learned so far during the trials.     

Catamnestic studies of patients with writer's cramp following inpatient psychotherapy

The paper gives the results of a follow-up study of 58 patients after psychotherapeutic treatment as in-patients for writer's cramp. Where as immediately after discharge 74.1% of the patients felt an improvement in their condition, at the time of the follow-up study only 17.2% were demonstrably improved, with 37.9% subjectively feeling an improvement over their state before treatment as in-patients. These results suggest that the customary psychotherapeutic methods employed have less effect on the evidently multifactorial extrapyramidal-motor basic complaint but rather have the effect of improving the patient's ability to cope with this in daily life.     

Theory‐building case studies of counselling and psychotherapy

In addition to their potential for healing, psychotherapy and counselling offer extraordinary opportunities to observe human experience and behaviour. I suggest practitioners have expertise in and daily access to the phenomena that theories of counselling and psychotherapy seek to explain. Practitioners’ clinical experience can be accumulated and shared through theory-building case study research. This article summarizes the logic of theory‐building case studies and offers practical suggestions for conducting case study research.     

Inducing psychotherapy: Hypnotic analogue for brief psychotherapy

These authors contend that hypnosis is a useful analogue and change accelerator for brief psychotherapy.A deep structure of psychotherapy is described by Frank, as making changes in a person's assumptive world so he/she may live more effectively. Cognitive alterations arise from new emotional experiences or emotional schemas which in turn have arisen in the context of a therapy relationship.A parsimonious recipe for the structure of brief psychotherapy is hypnosis. Hypnotic analogues for psychotherapy emerge from many theoretical backgrounds. After integrating aspects of these theories, a general analogue of hypnosis for the structure of brief psychotherapy is suggested. The analogue addresses induction, power issues, deepening, making and solidifying cognitive alterations, and endings.     

Assessment for psychotherapy

This paper explores some issues that might arise when one considers having a table hockey game in the therapy room, and describes how an autistic boy, aged four-and-a-half when starting treatment, used that game. The unfolding process from withdrawal to separateness, intersubjectivity and playfulness is illustrated by the progress of two years of twice-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Special attention is paid to how the play progressed through the intermediate area that the therapist provided.     

On the need for a new psychotherapy research paradigm: comment on Westen, Novotny, and Thompson-Brenner (2004)

Basic, process, and outcome research have the potential to inform clinical practice. However, as D. Westen, C. M. Novotny, and H. Thompson-Brenner observed in their timely analysis, the current dominant paradigm for psychotherapy outcome research--the randomized clinical trial--is not fulfilling this potential. The field's reliance on the medical model and manual-based interventions has contributed to the gap between research and clinical practice. Greater collaboration between practitioners and researchers, a focus on therapeutic principles rather than treatment packages, and systemic changes in how scholarly efforts are reinforced are needed to shift the current research paradigm.     

Brief psychodynamic psychotherapy in adolescent depression: Two case studies

In this paper the authors outline the basic principles of a manualized, brief psychodynamic approach that was evaluated as part of an outcome study within the National Health Service researching the effectiveness of two different forms of psychotherapy for major depression in childhood/adolescence: Focused Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Systems Integrative Family Therapy. As well as describing some of the difficulties encountered in short-term dynamic psychotherapy with adolescents, the authors present therapeutic work with two adolescents with major depressive disorder who were both seen as part of the research study. The authors depict some of the challenges and unavoidable difficulties which emerged during the therapy, arising from the needs of the research programme.