The Therapy Relationship and Outcomes: What Do We Know?

Despite what Big Pharma and Big Medical would have us believe, decades of careful scientific research have documented the effectiveness of psychotherapy. It’s been studied more than nearly any pill, surgical procedure, or medical device. As an old colleague once said, “We’ve studied the snot out of psychotherapy”.

When research evaluates the factors that contribute to psychotherapy success the emerging answer is that, like all complex human endeavors, many factors account for success (and failure): the client, the treatment method, the psychotherapist, the context, and the relationship between the therapist and the client.

We hear often that research finds this last nugget to be impactful: the relationship between the therapist and the client. But few of us have the time to collect and review all the studies on the therapy relationship.

But we’re in luck. A new CEUnits course, Evidence-Based Therapy Relationships  summarizes the impact of key elements of the therapy relationship on treatment outcomes. For each therapy relationship element, several therapeutic practices are described, in terms of both the therapist’s contribution and the client’s perspective. The course concludes with a chapter that reviews the research findings on adapting or tailoring the relationship to the individual patient in an effort to achieve that good fit, that optimal match between a unique client and the treatment.

We are very pleased to now offer this course to help support the continued honing of good practice, and help invigorate us with the confidence of knowing our work matters.