Research for the Psychotherapist: From Science to Practice

While empirical, scientific research has much to offer to the practice-oriented therapist in training, it is often difficult to effectively engage the trainee, beginning practitioner, or graduate student in a subject area that can often glaze over the eyes of a reader focused on practical work. Most textbooks encountered in research methodology and clinical psychology courses focus either on the process of gathering, analyzing, presenting, and discussing research results, or on conducting clinical work. What most of these texts lack is an engaging, accessible guide to how to incorporate research into practice. The proposed book would fill this niche with an approach that bridges the gap between research and practice, presenting concise chapters that distill research findings and clearly apply them to practical issues. The book is arranged in five sections, featuring over twenty short chapters under the headings of Psychotherapy and Psychotherapy Research, Research on Psychotherapy, Research onCouple and Family Therapy, Doing Research on Your Practice, and Research on Human Psychology. Lebow, an accomplished practitioner and researcher in his own right, will draw heavily from his own previously published articles (most from issues from the last five years of Psychotherapy Networker) to compose a focused volume that covers a range of topics. The author is well known in the fields of marriage and family therapy, and as a researcher with a variety of interests. This volume should appeal to students and professors already familiar with his work, as well as those looking for an accessible, jargon-free guide to utilizing research in practical settings.

Jay Lebow, Ph.D., LCP, ABPP, LMFT, is a licensed clinical psychologist and research consultant at The Family Institute at Northwestern, and Clinical Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University