What Makes a Good Psychotherapist?
If you’re curious about the question of what makes a good psychotherapist, you may enjoy watching my 43 minute interview by Daniel Mintie. As Daniel aptly says: ” Spoiler alert! Decades of meta-analysis say the answer is neither “the type of therapy” nor “years of experience.”
In the video we discuss what the data suggests distinguishes “super therapists” from their colleagues. These therapists are a rare breed and I don’t claim to be one of them. We therapists need to get real and understand that the vast majority of us are average. But average is good! In most studies of treatment conducted over the last 40 years, the average treated person is better off than 80% of the untreated sample. This translates to an effect size (ES) of 0.8.
Snippets from the transcript
I call myself a relationship coach, even though I’m a credentialed counselor, psychotherapist, sex therapist and professional supervisor. I’ve been in practice since 1981 and have been using an evidence-based practice called Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT) for 20 years. That’s the research we’ll be discussing and which draws on meta-analytic data from therapists around the world who’ve been using FIT for decades. I’ve been gathering data from my clients since 2004, but have been standing on the shoulders of giants like Bruce Wampold, Michael Lambert, Scott D. Miller and his ICCE team who have researched and worked with all of this data.
I came across FIT in 2004 and got training from Scott D. Miller, the founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence and have been using it ever since. It just made absolute sense that we therapists need to get feedback from our clients, and that we need to give our clients a voice in their therapy with us. We are not the experts on their lives. In every session we need to regularly and consistently get their feedback to help us find out what’s actually going on in their life and in their relationship with us. Most of our training teaches us to do therapy based on what we therapists think is going on for them based on our models of training. That’s certainly how I was trained to do therapy before I trained in FIT.
FIT, combined with Deliberate Practice (DP) are interdependent evidence-based methods for us therapists to improve our outcomes and relationships with our clients as well as continuing to develop and grow in our work as therapists. As explained below, neither FIT or DP are models of therapy, of which there are now more that 600.
What is FIT and DP
FIT is an empirically supported, pantheoretical approach for evaluating and improving the quality and effectiveness of behavioral health services. It involves routinely and formally soliciting feedback from clients regarding the therapeutic alliance and outcome of care and using the resulting information to inform and tailor service delivery.
DP is a specialized form of purposeful practice designed to help individuals master performance objectives just beyond their current level of comfort and ability.
If you’re interested in FIT and DP, check out these videos and contact the ICCE training center.
