The SCP Committee on Science and Practice has put together a “Manual for the Evaluation of Psychological Treatments Using the Tolin Criteria.” We’re hoping this will help standardize and streamline the EST evaluation process. osf.io/8hcsz
What does Distress Tolerance have to do with Depression? A Review
Distress tolerance is often conceptualized as one’s ability to tolerate and withstand negative or uncomfortable emotional states. Distress tolerance was initially studied primarily in relation to risky or dangerous behaviors like smoking and nonsuicidal self-injury. However, with continued research, distress tolerance has emerged as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology (Leyro et al. 2010) and is being increasingly recognized for …
Why Reporting Harms Matters
What is the public health significance of this article? Clinical practice guidelines are increasingly important in healthcare. However, in order to maximize their use in informed decision making as part of care, it is critical to have an understanding of the potential harms and burdens of treatments in addition to the potential benefits. Currently, there is a paucity of data …
Covid-19 Telehealth Publications
Covid-19 Psychology Resources: SCP is compiling a list of publications relevant to tele-psychology on a new page called Covid-19 Telehealth Pubs. Several entities are sharing resources relevant to this crisis and we decided that our contribution would be to compile recent publications on the application of tele-health to evidence-based psychotherapy. To continue to develop this list, we hope to crowdsource …
Getting Better Outcomes from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Treatments
Several effective treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exist, yet nearly half of patients continue to have significant symptomatology after receiving them (e.g., Foa et al., 2018). Augmentation is a way of improving outcomes from standard treatments by adding something before, during, or after standard treatment. Augmentation can work in lots of different ways, and might mean faster or greater …
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Youth Anxiety: An Overview and Future Directions
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), deemed a “well-established” intervention for the treatment of child and adolescent anxiety (Hollon & Beck, 2013), typically addresses anxiety using a two-pronged approach. In the first half of treatment, children and adolescents (referred to throughout as youth) are taught a series of coping skills to “fight the worry monster.” For example, during cognitive restructuring sessions, youth …
The Significance of LGB-Affirmative Training and Supervision in Improving Clinical Outcomes of LGB Clients
It is becoming increasingly common for psychologists to have clients who identify as LGB. Murphy, Rawlings, and Howe (2002) found “Fifty-six percent of participants had seen at least one LGB client in the past week. Among these participants, the mean percentage of LGB clients was 12%” (p. 185). LGB affirmative practice is highly essential for clinicians due to health disparities …
SMALL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN FREQUENT CANNABIS USE AND COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION IN YOUTH APPEAR TO WANE AFTER BRIEF ABSTINENCE: RESULTS FROM A META-ANALYSIS
This SCP Blog by Dr. J. Cobb Scott discusses a recent meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry that addressed the association between cannabis use and cognitive functioning in adolescents and young adults. The US has experienced substantial shifts in policy and perception regarding cannabis, or marijuana, use over the past decade.As of 2018, cannabis has been legalized for adult recreational use in 9 …
Rethinking the sufficient dose needed for PTSD treatment
This SCP blog by Drs. Denise Sloan and Brian Marx discusses findings from a recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry that compares the effectiveness of a brief exposure-based therapy for PTSD with Cognitive Processing Therapy with implications for finding the ‘right treatment dose’ for reducing symptoms. Despite significant advances in the treatment of PTSD a number of challenges remain. One …
Assertiveness Training: A Forgotten Evidence-Based Treatment
This SCP Blog post by Brittany Speed, Brandon Goldstein, and Dr. Marvin Goldfried discuss their recent publication in CP:SP addressing the role of assertiveness training in clinical psychology. Although psychotherapy has been in existence for over a century, the field has struggled to build upon research findings with consistent, accumulating evidence. One reason for this problem may be because we …
Treatment Considerations for Undocumented Patients
This SCP Blog is written by David Talavera, a Clinical Psychology PhD candidate at the University of Houston who is completing his predoctoral internship at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance. Let’s try a little exercise: Pretend you’re a patient waiting for your therapist for the first time. You’re in the waiting room. It’s quiet. You hear the air-conditioning humming. You …
Easing Mental Health Technologies into Practice: Considerations for a Smooth Transition
You have probably heard it a million times – there is a technology revolution and mental health services are not exempt. In both research and the private sector there is much buzz about the potential of technology to transform mental health service delivery (Jones, 2014; Kazdin & Blasé, 2011). Case in point, Dr. Tom Insel recently stepped down as the …
Behavioral Activation for Depression During Pregnancy: Results from a multi-site pragmatic randomized controlled effectiveness trial.
Behavioral Activation for Depression During Pregnancy: Results from a multi-site pragmatic randomized controlled effectiveness trial – an SCP blog piece by Drs. Hubley and Dimidjian For many, being pregnant is one of the most important and enjoyable moments in life. For others, life changes during pregnancy can become major challenges and 1 in 7 pregnant women become clinically depressed (Gavin …
Is “Abnormal Psychology” Really all that Abnormal?
Is “Abnormal Psychology” Really all that Abnormal – a blog post by Jonathan D. Schaefer, a doctoral student of Clinical Psychology at Duke University An assumption held by many—including many mental health professionals—is that people who suffer from one or more mental disorders constitute a small, troubled minority. This assumption is reflected in both the way we talk about mental …
Clinicians and Clients Disagree: Implications for Evidence-Based Practice
This blog piece by Dr. Douglas Samuel from Purdue University discusses a recently published article in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. It is well-established that the approaches to diagnosis differ substantially between clinical practice and research settings. Whereas the typical research study collects data using either a semi-structured interview administered by a research assistant or a self-report questionnaire completed by …
SCP at the APA Convention in Denver
The Society of Clinical Psychology had an impressive presence and very successful program this year at APA Convention in Denver. In addition to having a very well attended and positively received set of sessions this year that included “Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention” by Dr. Gregory Brown and “Contemporary Problem-Solving Therapy: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Enhance Resilience” by Dr. Arthur Nezu, we …
Do psychotherapists improve with time and experience?
Naturally, we all want to get better at the things that we do. Psychotherapists too may like to think that as they gain experience, they are continuing to develop their skills and improve the services they provide. Knowing that therapists contribute significantly to clients’ outcomes (explaining approximately 5% of variance in outcomes; Baldwin & Imel, 2013), therapists’ ability to improve …
Parental Military Deployment and Children: What Have We Learned from More than a Decade of War?
by Candice A. Alfano & Simon Lau, Department of Psychology, University of Houston A common saying in the military is that when one person joins the whole family serves. This phrase took on new meaning in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001. Subsequent combat operations required unprecedented rates of lengthy and repeated service member deployments. For many …
Section Updates 2016
Section Updates (published in TCP December 2015) Section 2: Society of Clinical Geropsychology By Michele J. Karel, PhD The Society of Clinical Geropsychology (SCG) has several updates, regarding our 2015 award winners, outgoing presidential initiative, incoming presidential initiative, and new diversity awards for our section. SCG Awards. At the APA convention in August, SCG recognized our three major awardees this …
CP:SP Opt In Announcement
ANNOUNCEMENT The Division 12 Journal, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice will be changing its access policy in January 2016. Historically the Journal has been dispersed via Hard Copy (i.e., paper copy) and Members could opt for online-access if they wished to do so when they initially join and/or renewed their Division 12 membership. Starting January 1, 2016, the Journal …
Preventing Interpersonal Violence among Military Veterans: The Strength at Home Program
Intimate partner violence (IPV) represents a significant clinical problem among veterans and service members. Numerous studies indicate that veterans and service members with greater posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms are at particularly high risk for IPV use (Marshall, Panuzio, & Taft, 2005; Taft, Watkins, Stafford, Street, & Monson, 2011). With large numbers of returning U.S. military members, there is an increasing …
CP:SP Special Series: Defining Competence when Working with Sexual and Gender Minority Populations
Be sure to read this SPECIAL SERIES in the June 2015 edition of CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE AND PRACTICE: Defining Competence when Working with Sexual and Gender Minority Populations: Training Models for Professional Development SEE TABLE OF CONTENTS AND LINKS BELOW Defining Competence when Working with Sexual and Gender Minority Populations: Training Models for Professional Development Jillian C. Shipherd – Guest Editor…………………………………………………………………………………………..101 …
Section 2: Later Life Sexual Expression
Sexual health is an important part of well-being in later life. However, misconceptions based on ageist stereotypes and lack of understanding has often led to avoidance of this topic. The result may be a missed opportunity to support an important aspect of successful aging. What is the “truth” about aging sexuality? First, sexual expression occurs across the lifespan and continues …
Increasing the Use of Effective Behavioral Treatments through Direct-to-Consumer Marketing
This piece by guest blogger, Dr. Sara Becker, summarizes ideas from her recent manuscript, Direct-to-Consumer Marketing: A Complementary Approach to Traditional Dissemination and Implementation Efforts for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Interventions, published in the March 2015 edition of Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. Increasing the Use of Effective Behavioral Treatments through Direct-to-Consumer Marketing One of the greatest challenges facing …
Dr. Edna Foa Receives the APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions
The APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions is awarded to psychologists who have made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology. Past awardees included Dr. Carl Rogers in 1956, Dr. Harry Harlow in 1960, Dr. Albert Bandura in 1980, Dr. Naom Chomsky in 1984, and Dr. Peter Lang in 1993, among many other renown psychologists. This year …
Advances in Psychotherapy Series: Autism Spectrum Disorder and Headache
The latest editions of the Advances in Psychotherapy – Evidence-Based Practice Book Series (Hogrefe Publishing) include Autism Spectrum Disorder and Headache. Autism Spectrum Disorder (Vol. 29, 2015) by Joseph, Soorya, and thrum (ISBN 978-0-88937-404-1) is a straightforward yet authoritative guide to effective diagnosis and empirically supported treatments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The book starts by reviewing DSM-5 and ICD-10 diagnostic …
Client Preferences and Shared Decision Making in Clinical Care
In a new article in Clinical Psychology Review, Lindhiem and colleagues describe a meta-analysis on the importance of client preferences for treatment satisfaction, completion rates, and clinical outcome. As the number of treatment options for different mental health conditions increases and clients have more resources available to learn about varying treatments, the idea of shared decision making has come to …
Clinical Psychology Graduate Student Summit
The Graduate Student Summit on Oct. 4th at Boston University School of Medicine was a success. Participants included Clinical Psychology graduate students in various stages of their training. The program included clinical science lectures, expert panels on issues of professional development, and networking opportunities with leaders in the field. Prominent researchers, practitioners, and directors of clinical training representing Boston University, McLean Hospital, …
10 Tips to a Successful Clinically Oriented Career Rooted in Science
SSCP offers 10 tips from Dr. Enjey Lin on carving out a clinically-oriented career in psychology that is rooted in science. Dr. Enjey Lin is currently a Clinical Instructor (in transition to Assistant Clinical Professor) in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UCLA, a Staff Psychologist and Attending Psychologist at the UCLA Child and Adult Neurodevelopmental Clinic, is …
Mental Health and Pediatric Primary Care
With increased attention paid to the high prevalence of unaddressed mental health problems among our youth, there is a growing demand for increased capacity of mental health care in pediatric primary care (PPC) practices . There are two good reasons why the PPC setting can make a large impact in detecting and managing child and adolescent mental health problems. First, almost all …
The Promise of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Initiative
By now many of us are familiar with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 2009 launch of a new initiative called the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project. RDoC continues to be a work-in-progress with the primary goal of developing a classification system for mental health disorders that is dimensional and that links to neurobiological systems. The proposed framework is …
Job Mentorship Resource
A job mentorship resource has been co-developed by the Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS) to support graduate students, post-doctoral and early career members. The program is designed to connect students and early career professionals with established psychological scientists working in a variety of clinical and/or research settings. The …
New Website On the Way!
Stay tuned as we prepare to roll out a website with a fresh new look!
40% Member Discount on Wiley Print Book Titles for the Holidays
Wiley publishers are offering Division 12 members a special discount of 40% on all print book titles. Find out more HERE