The common core of therapy
 The common core of therapy

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The common core of therapy

Across mental health and behavioural problems, ‘Dodo bird’ findings that bona fide therapies have similar effects have turned attention to the ‘common factors’ they share rather than how they differ. A collection specially catalogued to explore this important issue starting with the analyses most recently added or updated, totalling today 82 documents.

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STUDY 1957 HTM file
A study of three types of group psychotherapy with hospitalized male inebriates

Early US study uncovered for the Alcohol Treatment Matrix found a Rogerian client-centred therapy characterised by non-directive, empathic listening beneficially changed self-perceptions of alcohol-dependent patients and reduced relapse compared to approaches based on learning theory or psychoanalysis.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Navigating the alcohol treatment pathway: A qualitative study from the service users’ perspective

Patient interviews provide insight into low levels of engagement and retention in alcohol treatment services, hindering the effective provision of treatment for dependent drinkers. Findings suggest that treatment pathways should better reflect the capacity and capabilities of people with alcohol dependence.

HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
Treatment staff matter

One of our hot topics offering background and analysis on important issues which sometimes generate heated debate. By focusing on the intervention as if it were a mechanical lever, research has not just ignored but sought to eliminate what now seems a more important factor – the influence of the practitioner and how they relate to the patient.

DOCUMENT 1991 HTM file
Persuasion and Healing: a Comparative Study of Psychotherapy

First published in 1961, Jerome D. Frank’s book Persuasion and Healing was a pioneering insight into the important components shared by effective therapies in mental health including the addictions, components now widely acknowledged as more influential than the specific theories and methods of different approaches.

STUDY 2014 HTM file
Influence of counselor characteristics and behaviors on the efficacy of a brief motivational intervention for heavy drinking in young men – a randomized controlled trial

Swiss study of brief alcohol interventions with a representative sample of heavy drinking young men exposed the determining influence on later drinking of the practitioner’s competence in motivational interviewing and how they behave in the session.

STUDY 2010 HTM file
“Everyone deserves services no matter what”: Defining success in harm-reduction-based substance user treatment

A study exploring the challenges of defining and measuring ‘outcomes’ and ‘success’ in substance use treatment environments, from the perspective of staff and participants in two different US harm-reduction counselling programmes.

STUDY 2012 HTM file
Motivational interviewing: a pilot test of active ingredients and mechanisms of change

Motivational interviewing’s originator has stressed how unexpected findings can force fruitful rethinking. This study may prove an example; designed to forefront the approach’s distinct active ingredients, other than fleetingly and non-significantly, these did not seem active at all among the stable, moderately dependent drinkers recruited to the trial.

DOCUMENT 2009 HTM file
Management of cannabis use disorder and related issues: a clinician’s guide

Guidance funded by the Australian government and systematically based on the evidence. Covers the range of cannabis use interventions from brief advice for users identified by screening through to managing withdrawal and treating dependence.

STUDY 2009 HTM file
The alliance in motivational enhancement therapy and counseling as usual for substance use problems

Rarely has counselling been so deeply analysed as in this US study of mainly alcohol and cocaine dependent patients. The far-reaching implications are that some counsellors generate relationships with clients which feed through to better outcomes – but also that the 'best' relationship builders are not on average the most effective.

DOCUMENT 2013 HTM file
Sometimes best to break the rules

Motivational interviewing’s ‘Do not dos’ like avoiding confrontation were intended to sidestep the traps which provoke clients to dig in their heels or disengage. Imagine then the upset of discovering that in certain circumstances, the opposite is the case; the explanation appeared to lie in coming across as ‘genuine’.


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