Page 3: 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

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.

9 Jul 2024

Is it possible to measure psychotherapeutic change retrospectively?

Traditionally, at least two measurements — before and after therapy — are required to measure therapeutic change. But is it possible to capture change with a single retrospective measurement — that is, by directly asking a client about the magnitude of perceived change? We have found that a questionnaire based on this approach measures change in a similar way to traditional pre-post measures. It has the advantage of being more sensitive to change and easier to implement in practice. The disadvantage is clients' tendency to overestimate the magnitude of change compared to traditional pre-post measurement.