Achieving Success in Psychotherapy

Every profession comes with its own mantra for success. For a behavioral health professional, what is that one thing that will lead to the path of success?

Let’s first try to understand what leads someone to take up mental or behavioral therapy as a profession. Research shows that most therapists get into the profession in order to help people. They derive pleasure and satisfaction by seeing clients overcome psychological problems and thereby improving the quality of their lives. However, it is also true that almost 90% of therapists consider themselves to be in the top 25% bracket which obviously is not possible.

So, what must therapists do in order to continually improve and make sure that success in behavioral therapy is at all levels and all kinds, and not just with a handful of clients that are responsive or easy to work with?

If you are in the profession, Kelly Ross offers some insight:

Mental health Holy-Grail: There is no such thing as a Holy Grail and hence no single model or approach that can make your clients respond, or make the therapy highly successful. In fact, no single validated therapeutic approach has ever been shown to be better than the other.

The value of training and experience : These really are not hallmarks of therapeutic success either. There is no evidence to suggest that they contribute to dramatic results. In fact, in a large measure of both experienced and inexperienced therapists achieve nearly the same outcomes.

The pinnacle of therapist development : While the first two really don’t lead to pinnacle of success, there is however an empirically based method of improving outcomes. This is based on the extensive investigation of therapist development ever conducted. This is seen in the book, How Psychotherapists Develop, which is the result of a 15-year study of experiences spanning all levels of psychotherapists in various countries. It suggests what is known as “healing involvement” and involves:

• Being personally committed and affirming to patients
• Engaging at a high level of basic empathetic and communication skills
• Being conscious of flow type feelings during the sessions
• Having a sense of efficacy in general
• Dealing constructively with difficulties if problems in treatment arise

Sources of healing involvement: In the book, the authors identified three main sources of healing involvement:

• Cumulative career development
• The therapist’s sense of theoretical breadth
• The therapist’s sense of currently experienced growth

It’s a partnership: Healing involvement is not a one-sided affair; it involves the client’s help too, in order to make it work by seeking their feedback continuously. This is where Feedback Informed Therapy (FIT) comes into the picture with Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and Session Rating Scale (SRS), assuming a lot of significance in this context.

As a final step, itis important to collect all the outcome data to be able to track cumulative career development. This helps implement and evaluate strategies to improve the outcomes. In the final assessment, only an effective feedback can serve as a precursor in attaining the success that you seek as a therapist.