Principles Of Therapeutic Change That Work

What treatments are most effective in psychotherapy? Does research provide the answers? Division 12 of the American Psychological Association (APA) began to look at these important questions with the establishment of a successful task force that was a catalyst for the Empirically Supported Treatment (EST) movement. The result was A Guide to Treatments That Work, now in a second edition (Nathan and Gorman, 2002), an indispensable compilation of psychotherapy treatments and interventions found to be most effective. But this volume did not address the moderating influences of the patient-therapist relationship. Consequently, another task force was formed under the auspices of the APA's Division of Psychotherapy (Division 29). This second investigation focused on "empirically supported relationships," concentrating on such things as therapeutic disclosure, the formation of the therapeutic alliance, self-disclosure, and the like. Psychotherapy Relationships That Work: Therapist Contributions and Responsiveness to Patients (Norcross, 2002) was the first book to assemble the crucial advances in understanding the patient-therapist relationship.