Why is it important to know how to choose the therapeutic approach in Psychology

You finish university and begin to carry out the necessary procedures to be able to have the permits and professional ability to practice the profession you chose and it inspires you to work.

You have your first patient; it is possibly the next most eagerly motivating experience you will have after supporting your investigative work in front of a jury.

Your patient tells you what ails him, how he feels, what he thinks and what he would like to achieve with your help. You answer him with confidence and conviction that you can help him solve his problem, to feel less distressed, to overcome all this situation that has brought him to consultation, which has made him choose psychotherapy as a form of help and well-being.

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The importance of choosing the right therapeutic approach

For a second consultation, you need to have an outline of the intervention plan that you will work with your patient (regardless of whether you will work on evaluation and diagnosis with him or her), and maybe that's when you realize that you don't know very well how to translate the knowledge obtained in your professional training into viable and understandable answers for your patient.

If this has happened to you, or something similar, surely you already know that you are neither the first nor the last colleague to experience or experienced such a situation. Prenlu invites you to participate in the course "Guide to choose the therapeutic approach that your patient needs", where a treatment plan model will be shared considering the main contributions of various schools psychological. To learn more, get in touch with Prenlu.

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A contradiction in psychology training

Unfortunately, the various studies conducted over the years regarding the importance of conducting research in psychotherapy show us two contradictory panoramas. On the one hand, it is considered the interest of students in recent years regarding dedicating themselves to caring for patients, that is, to perform psychotherapy when they conclude their studies. And, on the other hand (which is really the other side of the coin) the little interest in reading and / or developing research in psychotherapy.

This contradiction can be interpreted in various ways: public and private universities have a study plan that, in general, do not include curricular experiences to carry out research on psychotherapy; There is still a considerable percentage that is inclined towards the clinical area, which, in turn, is more oriented to the treatment of patients or clients; there is greater interest in being trained in a psychotherapeutic approach than in knowing its effectiveness using scientific methodology or some method that is comparable with respect to its validity and reliability.

However, it is possible to refer to some research that has shed light on this bumpy and outdated path of psychotherapy.

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The importance of non-specific factors in therapy

Safran and Segal's research (1994, cited in Moncada and Kühne, 2003) highlighted the importance of non-specific factors in psychotherapy. Among these factors are: therapeutic relationship, the patient's expectations and the therapeutic alliance. These factors are also called common factors, because they are coupled to all psychotherapeutic approaches, since they do not link their actions with the theoretical bases on which they sustain their praxis.

Also noteworthy is the research by Barber, Connolly, Christoph, Gladis & Siqueland (2000) that highlights the therapist-patient relationship as an important non-specific factor in achieving change therapeutic. In this study, conducted with patients who had been diagnosed with depression, it was found that the alliance with the psychotherapist was a significant predictor for remission of depressive symptoms.

And, if non-specific factors are mentioned, it is also relevant to mention the specific ones, those that include specific application and development techniques and procedures within the sessions psychotherapeutic. According to Lambert (1986; cited in Poch and Ávila, 1998), the common factors make it possible to predict the success of psychotherapy by 30%, while the specific ones do so by 15%, a considerable difference and reaffirming, taking into account that the first investigations on psychotherapy demonstrated its effectiveness in general terms, regardless of the approach and modality of app.

Thus, it is possible to glimpse that research in psychotherapy plays a motivating role to develop and improve psychotherapeutic work.

For this, it is important to consider the characteristics that the investigations must meet that allow obtaining reliable results regarding whether a therapeutic approach should be considered effective. Chambless & Hollon (1998; cited in Moncada and Kühne, 2003) refer to these requirements as “evidence-based psychotherapy”, which establishes clear parameters when conducting research in psychotherapy.

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The need to focus on what makes psychotherapy effective

Given these requirements, Kaechele (2000) reinforces the idea of ​​criterially analyzing these results to not fall into mechanized treatments and depersonalize the patient as well as the therapeutic work, recommending base psychotherapeutic work on the available evidence that the various approaches offer.

This same author invites reflection on assuming a more responsible and careful role when working on psychotherapy, emphasizing that society is increasingly interested in the effectiveness of the treatment in relation to the expenses that must be included in their budgets.

Finally, Kaechele recommends increasing studies sectorizing the populations and specific disorders in each socio-cultural realizationIt is evident from the results of different investigations that, in general, psychologists are not interested in knowing about them or developing them. And the most alarming thing is that those colleagues who do, “are hardly willing to modify their beliefs or their way of doing psychotherapy based on what the research says " (Kaechele, 2000; Beutler, Moleiro & Talebi, 2002).

Thus, it is important to research, develop and / or update viable ways of making psychotherapy effective. It is a mutual benefit that will not only increase professional work but will also strengthen the therapist-patient bond, so relevant to achieve what many were initially inspired to study psychology: reduce people's suffering and truly help them improve their mental health.

If you want to know about the main therapeutic approaches and other less popular ones, Prenlu invites you to participate in the course "Guide to choose the therapeutic approach that your patient needs ", where you will learn to design an action plan using practical tools that will facilitate the list of short, medium and long therapeutic objectives term. Learn more by doing click here.