Center for Psychotherapy Research

The Center for Psychotherapy Research consists of researchers from the Psychology Research Institute and the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno. It is dedicated to the implementation of research projects, as well as connecting the world of research and practice in the field of psychotherapy and counselling.

More about the Center

News

2 Nov

We participated in a conference on mental health

We participated in the kickoff conference for the new international project “Together for Mental Health” in Bergen, Norway. The project aims to develop scientifically validated tools and procedures to support mental health, which will be created in direct collaboration with practitioners and will be easily applicable across Europe. The grant’s principal investigator, Christian Moltu of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), is based in Bergen. The October meeting served to bring together international teams, share expertise, and plan the next steps in the research.

19 Jul

Monitoring clients' session reactions

We published an article examining the psychometric properties of the Czech and Slovak versions of the Session Response Scale (SRS-3-B), which we also use within the DeePsy app. The questionnaire is designed so that each item captures a specific, distinct client response (or the session’s impact on the client). The study demonstrated that the questionnaire works well, both at the level of individual items and at the level of composite scores. It also showed that, despite its brevity (the questionnaire has only 14 items), it captures most of what clients consider essential when reflecting on a therapy session.

20 May

Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences-2

We contributed to the development of a new version of the Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences. The questionnaire makes it possible to quickly identify clients’ preferences and engage them in a dialogue about the kind of therapy they would like to receive. Research clearly shows that when therapists take clients’ preferences into account, this is typically associated with greater therapeutic effectiveness and higher client satisfaction.

7 Jan

Barriers and facilitators in the implementation of routine outcome monitoring

Continuous monitoring of psychotherapy outcomes and systematic collection of feedback from clients — known as Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) — can significantly increase the effectiveness of therapeutic work. However, introducing such regular measurement into everyday practice presents a number of challenges. It is influenced, for example, by therapists' emotional reactions (e.g., fear of evaluation) or concerns that measurement will negatively affect the therapeutic relationship (research studies show that the opposite is actually true!). Obstacles may also lie in the lack of institutional support (e.g., lack of training in how to use ROM), practical aspects (e.g., the time needed for measurement), or on the client's side (e.g., acute condition). In this article, we draw on a meta-analysis of nearly 60 studies from different countries and contexts and offer practical suggestions for therapists who want to use ROM sensitively, effectively, and in line with their clinical work.