Page 4: 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

17 Jun 2024

Measuring client preferences across languages and cultures

We have published a study comparing different language versions of the Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences. We worked with data from the English, American, German, Belgian Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish and Chinese context. We were able to find a factor model that worked well across many languages and that allows us to compare therapeutic preferences across countries. An interesting finding was that the structure of preferences did not differ between people attending psychotherapy and those with no direct experience of psychotherapy.

10 Jun 2024

What do clients take away from sessions?

We discovered that in the initial phase of treatment (the first 5 sessions) two session reactions play a central role, namely (1) new discoveries related to the self and (2) finding a distance from one’s experiencing. These two reactions preceded other desirable reactions such as a sense of relief, perception of the therapeutic bond, and new discoveries about others. Clearly, a positive spiral of the treatment process seems to unfold if the client finds the treatment personally meaningful and can maintain a certain “distance” from the overwhelming experience of their life situation. Find more in our recent article.

31 May 2024

Psychotherapy integration

We contributed to a chapter entitled "Psychotherapy integration: history, current status, and future directions" published in the new APA Handbook of Psychotherapy. The chapter summarizes the history and current directions in psychotherapy integration. It also summarizes research findings and training approaches in the field of psychotherapy integration. Efforts to integrate different psychotherapeutic approaches have accompanied the entire development of psychotherapy as a field. They can be thus considered a counterpoint to the constant differentiation and development of new psychotherapeutic methods.

22 Mar 2024

What is the purpose of therapists monitoring the process and results of therapy?

We have found that the benefits of using routine outcome monitoring (ROM) systems are manifold. Our meta-analysis of 47 qualitative studies from around the world revealed that they are not only useful for obtaining clinically relevant information about the client. They also help in planning and structuring therapy, facilitate dialogue between the therapist and the client, and help improve the therapeutic relationship. Therapists also reported benefits for the clients themselves: monitoring made it easier for clients to gain insight into their difficulties or served as "confirmation" of perceived change. However, the possibility to adapt the work with the monitoring system to the needs and preferences of the client and the therapist was also an important aspect of using ROM.