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2010: Jeffrey Magnavita

An Initial Exploration of Initiatives for Presidential Term 2010

Jeffrey J. Magnavita, President-elect (2009)

This document is a work in progress for consideration, discussion, and feedback.  The ideas that are presented are those of the author and do not represent any Division 29 commitments or future directions.

Challenges to the Division

The Division of Psychotherapy has been a central force in shaping the practice, theory, training, supervision and research in psychotherapy. Unfortunately, there seems to be a perception by many that we have lost our relevance. There has been a steady decline in membership over the last decade and an aging membership which threatens the viability of Division 29. There are many possibilities for this downward trend. There has been an increasing number of Divisions within APA which compete for membership. Many psychologists report that it is costly to belong to all the divisions they identify with and are interested in. Young career psychologists struggle with increasing debt burden from graduate school loans which makes joining APA and divisions a low priority. The practice of psychotherapy may not be viewed as a central role for psychologist as other clinical specialties such as health psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and forensic psychology have gained ascendance. The Division has grappled with how to recruit new, younger, and diverse members but we have had limited success. The issue of declining membership is also an issue for other organizations devoted to psychotherapy such as the Society for Psychotherapy Exploration and Integration (SEPI). In spite of high quality yearly conferences, attendance has been declining and presents a major challenge. On the other hand the American Association for Psychotherapy seems to be thriving with a large membership pool. This group is much more inclusive with cross-disciplinary representation. The challenge for Division 29 needs to respond to the changing needs of psychotherapists and changing cultural and technological trends.

Potential Goals:

• Determine the needs of psychologist who are interested in psychotherapy. Consider exploring the needs of psychotherapists using focus groups of different groups who are engaged in psychotherapy. [What do students need and want? What do early career psychologists need and want? What do established psychologists need and want? What do retirement age psychologists need and want? What do non-psychologist psychotherapists need and want?]
• Articulate what kind of impact we want to have on the future of psychotherapy and psychotherapists. In other words what do we see as our mission in the future? [Do we want to become the premier organization that psychotherapist turn to when they want to participate in shaping the field? Do we want to safeguard and transmit the accumulated wisdom of the 1^st hundred years of psychotherapy to succeeding generations? Do we want to shape the future of the field in the development of new practice models, research, and training?]
• Articulate how we want psychotherapy to impact our society and the world. Do we see psychotherapy as having a potentially positive impact on society and the world? Are there ways in which people who could benefit from psychotherapy can have better access? Are we committed to giving back what we have had the privilege to learn and practice?]
• Bring Home the Leaders—Offer a Master Psychotherapist Designation. Many of the leading psychotherapists do not belong to Division 29. We should consider developing a mechanism to invite them into our division as Master Psychotherapists and make them feel that our Division is their home. We could also feature them on our website or offer videoconference seminars as a way of featuring their work and introducing them to our members.

Presidential Initiatives to Consider

There are three presidential initiatives that I have considered during my term. All of them are long-term projects that I believe will enhance the attractiveness of our division to current and potential members. Due to many factors including demographics and possible changes in what interests young career psychologists we need to make D29 relevant and well positioned. We have the organizational structure to evolve into a premier psychotherapy organization but we need to respond to changing times.

1. 1. Continue to be Leaders in Enhancing Science, training, and Practice. The Unified Psychotherapy Project (UUP)

The advancements in psychotherapy have been truly remarkable over the course of the first hundred years of clinical science. The field of psychotherapy is experiencing new challenges for demonstrating efficacy, translating science to practice, and developing new methods to treat complex disorders and relational dysfunction.  Much progress has been made in many areas of research, theory, and practice. We have begun to understand how there are common unifying principles of all psychotherapy. One remaining challenge and an important leap forward is to map the methods and techniques of psychotherapy. A few years ago an effort to remediate this problem was initiated with the development of the Unified Psychotherapy Project (UPP). In biological science a major leap was made when the human genome was mapped. The UUP is a somewhat similar attempt to organize and map the methods and techniques of psychotherapy, along with providing a description and any evidence-base supporting their use in various clinical applications.

Potential Goal: Establish a Division 29 task force to begin to organize the methods and techniques of psychotherapy into a large data base that could be accessed through our publications and website for members or those who pay a fee. This could include a definition of the technique and the class of methods it falls under, patient-therapist vignettes demonstrating how the technique is utilized and what kind of issues it has application to. Evidence supporting each technique can be added as the research accumulates. This could eventually include a video demonstration for each technique. This could eventually become a future source of revenue for the division.

Possibilities:

• Create a unified psychotherapy project spearheaded by our division and eventually accessible on our internet site
• Publish position papers in our Journal
• Publish our findings in Journal
• Publish findings in text books

1. 2. Utilizing Cutting-Edge Technological Advances to Advance Practice, Training, Research—Webpage Development

There have been many challenges to our division. As stated, one important trend has been in loss of our membership base and with that a stream of revenue. We have made progress in developing our internet site and capabilities but technology is rapidly advancing. It seems that marrying technology to our knowledge base will open up future possibilities. There is a clear trend toward internet based information dissemination. The current generation views the internet as the major information source for almost all cultural and intellectual activities. In order to stay current we need the most advanced internet site we can afford which offers specialized services to our membership base and others who may not be members but want to purchase the information. For example, we could offer pod casts of all our APA convention programs which are suitable for this format. These can also be offered in an audiovisual format (See PopTech internet site for example). A generation of psychologists has skipped being a part of the transmission of knowledge of psychotherapy due to managed care and financial cut backs which have led to the closing of many advanced post-doctoral training programs in psychotherapy. Most psychologists are not adequately trained in advanced psychotherapeutic methods following graduate school. In the past generations there were numerous training programs which allowed interested mental health practitioners to learn advanced skills in psychotherapy using group supervision and videotape. Those interested would seek out a training program in psychoanalytic, family, brief treatment etc. and receive a certificate. It would be useful to many early career psychologists if Division 29 listed the post-doctoral training programs available. I am not aware of any source that has this information. I often hear from my recently graduated students that they want advanced training but don’t know where to go. Would it also be possible for out division to develop and offer advanced programs in psychotherapy?

Potential Goal: Expand our internet committee to a information technology committee and hire a consultant to offer guidance and oversight of technological applications suitable and consistent with goals of division.

Possibilities:

• Allow members to access psychological databases as part of membership in division and for a fee to non-members.
• Offer specialized menus of information [Post-Doctoral Training Opportunities, Service Organizations, Meeting the Masters, Meeting our Members, Translation Research for Psychotherapists, etc.]
• Offer interactive learning sequences such as viewing videotapes of psychotherapy and learning new principles and methods
• Consider interviewing and audiovisually recording the leading psychotherapists and offering these on our internet site
• Considering featuring a typical practitioner, researcher, social change agent, teacher by interviewing and audiovisually recording them and making available on internet for viewing (check with Jon Carlson)
• Consider offering service opportunities on the internet (i.e., non-profit organizations which psychotherapist can join and offer their services on a pro bono basis
• Offer links to other psychotherapy organizations such as International Association of Experiential Dynamic Therapy, Association for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Society for Exploration and Integration of Psychotherapy, Society of Psychotherapy Researchers etc.
• Offer on line video symposium to members for a low fee
• Develop a list of qualified supervisors in various modalities and types of psychotherapy for members looking for supervision in EMDR, Short-term dynamic therapy, CBT, DBT etc.

1. 3. Service—Offering Our Knowledge and Skills to those in Need

One important mission that could make psychotherapy more relevant is to provide the benefit of our services to underserved populations nationally and internationally. Providing pro bono work to people in need is part of our psychologist code of responsibility. “Professionals like psychologists have a special obligation, an unwritten contract, to serve the public interest… While not mandated, it is expected that a professional provides pro bono services” (Judy Hall-National Register of Health Care Providers in Psychology, 2008). There are a number of non-profit organizations begun by psychologist to address these issues. Are we interested in spearheading a movement in this arena?

Potential goal: Establish a task force to encourage, honor, and reinforce the value of service to our national and global community.

Possibilities:

• Work with non-profit organizations who want to create mechanism for offering mental health services to community
• Establish an international task force to consult with and develop delivery mechanisms for underserved populations
• Feature in our Bulletin stories of individuals who are creatively offering their services for the benefit of the community
• Provide expert consultants to groups who are addressing mental health needs of the community

I welcome your feedback, reactions and input. You can email at MagnaPsych@aol.com or I am happy to speak by phone or in person.

Re-Envisioning the Division