Choosing Your Psychotherapist

1. Choosing Your Psychotherapist By: Lindsey Berman

2. Background • Does psychotherapy work? Which type of therapy should I choose? Do some work better than others? • Mary Lee Smith and Gene Glass • Goals: • To identify and collect all studies that tested the effects of counseling and psychotherapy • To determine the magnitude of the effect of therapy in each study • To compare the effects of different types of therapy.

3. Method • 375 different studies from 1000 magazines, journals, and books that tested counseling and psychotherapy effects. • Each had one group who received therapy and one control group. • Meta-analysis • Most important to include was the effect of therapy • 833 effect sizes • 25000 subjects combined • Average age: 22 • Average time: 17 hours • Average therapist experience: 3.5 years

4. Results (Does therapy work?) • Average subject that received therapy was better off than 75% of the untreated subjects. • Therapy moved average subject from the 50th percentile to 75th percentile • Only 99/833 (12%) of the effect sizes had negative results

5. Results (How does therapy work for different results? )

6. Results (Which type of therapy works best?)

7. Results (Behavior superclass vs. non-behavioral) • Split into two “superclasses” • Compared the two control groups • No differences between the two

8. Significance • The study was “a step in the right direction toward solving the problem” that people do not have enough knowledge of therapy. • Less confusing for clients, more confusing for therapists.

9. Recent Applications • Meta-analysis for 48 different studies on depression and group therapy • Those who received therapy improved 85% percent more than those who don’t. • Behavioral treatments for people suffering from migraine and tension headache problems. • 30 - 50% reduction in the headaches with the behavioral strategies. • Psychotherapy for the mentally retarded.