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Graduate Student Stephanie Budge Awarded First Charles J. Gelso Psychotherapy Research Grant

Congratulations to Stephanie Budge, who has been awarded the first Charles J. Gelso, Ph. D. Psychotherapy Research Grant. Division 29 created this grant program to provide annual grants (up to $2000) supporting the advancement of research on psychotherapy process or psychotherapy outcome.
Stephanie is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department [...]

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Shows Promise in Reducing Somatization Patients’ Return Emergency Department Visits

By Michael Constantino and Jeffrey Magnavita.
Summary
Abbass et al. (2009) examined the preliminary efficacy of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) in the treatment of patients with medically unexplained symptoms (i.e., somatization complaints) presenting to the emergency department (ED). ISTDP is a brief, although not time-restricted, approach that targets the unconscious emotional processes underlying patient’s manifest symptomatology [...]

Treatment of Comorbid PTSD and Substance Abuse Shows Support of the Self-Medication Model

By Michael Constantino and Jeffrey Magnavita.

Summary
In an RCT study of 353 women assigned to either 12 sessions of trauma-focused or health education group treatment the researchers found that PTSD severity reductions were more likely associated with substance use improvement whereas minimal reduction in PTSD was found with substance use reduction (Hein et al., 2010). These [...]

Important Changes Approved by the APA Council

The APA Council In Action!  By Linda Campbell and Norine Johnson.
We are quite used to stalemates, filibusters, and partisanship these days, aren’t we? I wish you could all have attended this Council meeting to see actual decision-making, compromise, and respectful disagreement. There were items on this Council agenda that truly spoke to who we are, [...]

New Psychotherapy Research Grant Named in Honor of Charles J. Gelso

CHARLES J. GELSO, PH.D., PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH GRANT
Division 29 created the annual Charles J. Gelso, Ph.D., Psychotherapy Research Grant to provide annual grants (up to $2000) supporting the advancement of research on psychotherapy process or psychotherapy outcome. Grant eligibility rotates biannually between graduate students/predoctoral interns and doctoral level psychologists/postdoctoral fellows.
The grant program was established in honor [...]

Assimilating Common Factor Treatment Components into Cognitive Therapy for Depression

Michael J. Constantino, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
A voluminous and ever-expanding research literature points to the general effectiveness of psychotherapy (Lambert & Ogles, 2004). Through the use of controlled clinical trials, psychotherapy researchers have identified many empirically-supported treatments for specific clinical phenomena (Roth & Fonagy, 2005). The extant research also suggests that, with just a few [...]

Three Ways to Improve our Effectiveness

By Bruce E. Wampold
Garrison Keillor observes of the residents of Lake Wobegon, “All the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” As psychotherapists, it is likely that we similarly believe we are above average, but as Keillor’s folksy humor reminds us, it ain’t so—half of us are [...]