Page 2: 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.

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News

3 Sep 2024

How do psychotherapists work with faith and religion?

In our qualitative meta-analysis of 52 primary studies, we found that spirituality and religiosity influence not only the therapeutic process but also therapists' professional identity, and are also reflected in the broader context of the therapeutic profession, including training. The psychotherapists in the primary studies differed in the way they linked or, conversely, separated spirituality and religiosity from the psychotherapy profession. While for some these were two inseparable and harmoniously related aspects of life, for others faith and religion were incompatible with their therapeutic work, and for others they represented resources that could be integrated into therapy to varying degrees as needed. Also, in the therapeutic process itself, faith and religion manifested themselves in many different ways, some of which appeared to help the therapeutic process, while others appeared to hinder it.

19 Aug 2024

The importance of qualitative research for the formulation of clinical guidelines

Clinical guidelines in psychotherapy are usually formulated on the basis of experimental studies. While these may demonstrate the effectiveness of a particular approach, they do not allow for the exploration of many important aspects of treatment, such as clients' subjective experience of the therapeutic process, the clinical decision-making process of therapists, or the optimal way of tailoring the therapeutic approach to the needs of a given client. Qualitative research can make a crucial contribution to all of this. We have contributed to an article that clearly summarizes the arguments for considering the results of qualitative studies in the development of clinical guidelines.

12 Aug 2024

What does complexity theory have to offer psychotherapy?

Nonlinear changes often occur in the course of psychotherapy. The client's state may fluctuate during therapy, may change in leaps and bounds, or may return in repetitive patterns, for example. Traditional statistical methods cannot realistically capture these processes. In our review study, we analyzed information from 41 articles in which the authors applied dynamic system and complexity theories to psychotherapy. These studies used mathematical methods to better understand the complex dynamics of psychotherapy.

29 Jul 2024

Effectiveness of psychotherapy in the context of Czech health insurance companies’ preventive programs

We have published probably the largest study to date on the effectiveness of psychotherapy in the Czech context. The aim was to find out how effective is therapy within the preventive programs of health insurance companies — i.e. short-term individual therapy provided in private practices. The magnitude of change in depression and anxiety corresponds to the effectiveness of psychotherapy commonly reported in similar foreign studies, and there was also a noticeable change in the area of accompanying somatic symptoms. The effectiveness of psychotherapy in our study was not related to the amount of psychotherapists' profession experience or their theoretical orientation and was only marginally related to their primary profession.