When a patient is undergoing treatment for a substance use disorder (SUD), one of the greatest risks for relapse is encountering the drug itself, or, something that reminds the patient of using the drug (i.e., a “trigger” for use). For example, let’s say an individual who recently quit smoking cigarettes sits down at a table outside of a coffee shop …

Racism against Black Americans has a long history in the United States, but it is getting worldwide attention due to recent tragedies, including the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police. Psychologists, businesses, and the government have all responded to the current movement to address racism. The public responses have been focused on overt racism that is …

Self-knowledge is highly valued in contemporary society; one needs only to browse the psychology or self-help sections in any bookstore to be confronted with a gamut of books touting the need for self-reflection as a means of better understanding one’s thoughts and actions. Similarly, in modern clinical psychology, the importance of self-reflection is promulgated in an overarching approach to clinical …

In practice, clinical psychologists typically focus on diagnosing and treating specific mental health conditions. As a consequence, the social needs and priorities of clients have often been down-played or treated as secondary considerations. However, this approach is rapidly changing as accumulating evidence shows that loneliness—the distressing feeling that our social relationships are not meeting our needs – has substantial negative …

A recent article out now by Sosoo, Bernard, and Neblett (2019) titled “the influence of internalized racism on the relationship between discrimination and anxiety” shows that different types of race-related stress, particularly racial discrimination and internalized racism, may combine to adversely impact mental health over time. Specifically, in their study, Sosoo and colleagues found that Black participants who endorsed greater …

Every clinician is familiar with patients who describe their complaints in a way that raises concerns as to the plausibility of their symptom reports. In these patients, the frequency (‘I have panic attacks every hour’), intensity (‘my pain is always 10 on the 0-10 numerical pain rating scale’), and/or co-occurrence (‘I have panic attacks, experience pain, hear voices, and suffer …

“Jenna” was an adolescent who presented for treatment at a specialty clinic after having been in therapy for several years. During that time, she had been having several panic attacks per day and met criteria for multiple anxiety disorders. She had dropped out of school, had increasing depression symptoms, and had been hospitalized several times for suicidality. By the time …

It is commonly believed that video games are inherently unhealthy for individuals and for society as a whole. For example, a recent statement from the US President linked video gaming to extreme violence and mass shootings in the United States: “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are …

A client presents with problems of anxiety. Most distressing to the client is his excessive worry about a number of things that he finds difficult to control and is negatively affecting his life. Using current classification systems like the DSM, we may initially conclude that this presentation can best be described as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). We know there is …

Our field has accumulated a lot of empirical support for the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating a wide range of mental and behavioral health problems. However, these gold-standard CBT treatments remain extremely difficult to access, leaving wide gaps between those who need psychological care and those who actually receive it (Wang et al., 2005). Technology offers exciting …

Over the decades, the American Psychological Association (APA) and other professional psychology organizations have provided considerable leadership towards the advocacy of equality. This commitment has undergirded the call for multicultural competency and humility in professional clinical practice and research and across a range of individual and group differences.  While clinical psychologists are called to multicultural competency and humility—via education, training, …

Prescriptive authority for psychologists has been hotly debated for decades, with literature identifying various stakeholder opinions, but minimal scholarship addressing training or outcomes (Heiby, 2010; Muse & McGrath, 2010; Robiner et al., 2003).  Robiner, Tompkins, and Hathaway summarize training programs of various health professions that prescribe for mental health patients. Their study compares the training for psychologists to prescribe to …

It is hard to ignore the growing interest in telemental health care provided via videoconferencing (TMH-V). Similar to Skype or Facetime, TMH-V allows providers to deliver psychotherapy, medication management, or assessment to clinics without on-site mental health services or directly to patients’ homes. TMH-V can increase access to mental health care for a wide variety of patients, including those who: …

During the 1970’s, psychological researchers began using randomized controlled trials–just like in medicine–in order to scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of different kinds of psychotherapies. Some time later, after a critical mass of controlled psychotherapy trials were published, a Task Force from APA Division 12 synthesized this literature. Division 12 produced a continually updated list of therapies that appeared to have …

Mentalizing is the psychological capacity to reflect and understand behavior in terms of internal mental states, such as thoughts, feelings, and intentions (Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, & Target, 2002). A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence supports the notion that deficient mentalizing is a psychological mechanism underlying various psychopathologies (Katznelson, 2014); likewise, the promotion of mentalizing is seen as a common …

Joyce is a woman of 63 years. Like almost one in five older adults, she struggles with feelings of depression. In her case, important life events seem to be related to these depressive feelings, as she recently retired and also lost her husband just two years ago. In her own words, she feels that life is meaningless: “I believe I …

Parents and the public are increasingly concerned that adolescents’ rapid adoption of the smartphone and other modern technologies is harming their mental health, and it is not uncommon for them to ask clinical psychologists and other mental health practitioners for guidance. Unfortunately, much of the research in this domain has yielded mixed results, which makes it difficult to offer concrete, …

For the past 60 years, psychological research as a whole has been dominated by the deficit model of psychopathology that centers on disorder, damage, and mental illness. Thus, the focus of psychology has been mostly on what goes wrongwith individuals rather than on what goes rightwith them, especially among minority populations such as immigrants. Indeed, the vast majority of immigration-focused …

Gender affirming medical interventions (GAMI) are interventions that some, but not all, transgender or gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals seek in order to bring their primary and secondary sex characteristics in line with their own affirmed gender. These interventions can include hormone treatments, genital surgery, chest surgery, hair removal, tracheal shave or speech therapy. There are a variety of reasons why …

Numerous studies support the effectiveness of online therapy (Backhaus et al., 2012; Bee et al., 2008), but little research has been conducted to determine whether computer-mediated communication (CMC) could impact crucial relational aspects of psychotherapy such as empathy (Terry & Cain, 2016). Empathy relates to our capacity to understand and, to some extent, feel what other individuals feel without experiencing …

Technological developments in e-mental health represent an exciting new frontier for psychologists. While these developments bring opportunities, they also pose numerous challenges.  The rise of mental health technologies targeted directly at consumers is at risk of becoming a growing pipeline of alternative treatments with little or no supporting evidence.  In recent years, this issue has been well examined in relation …

This SCP Blog piece by Drs Papalia, Spivak, Daffern, and Ogloff discusses a recent meta-analytic review of psychological treatments for violent offenders published in Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. Worldwide, violence is a significant public health problem in terms of its effects on victims, the quality of life for offenders, and the economic burden on correctional services, the health sector, …

Increasingly, there is greater awareness that college students have high levels of clinically significant emotional problems, and despite a broad consensus about the need to clarify the scope of the problem and develop actionable solutions, our understanding of college student mental health remains limited. Toward addressing this gap, the WHO World Mental Health International College Student Initiative(WMH-ICS) has sought to: …

Although considered the gold standard psychological treatment for many mental and behavioral health conditions, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) continues to be delivered at rates far below what research and expert recommendations suggest. Indeed, recent estimates suggest that as few as 5 percent of individuals with depression or anxiety receive CBT or other evidence-based psychotherapy (EBP). Despite the enduring under-use of …

Opioid misuse has drastically increased in the U.S. since the late 1990s, resulting in a devastating public health impact on communities and families. Opioid overdose fatalities continue to rise, and almost 12 million people misused prescription or illicit opioids in 2016. Given its widespread impact, adequate response to the opioid crisis will require involvement of the entire health care community. …

There is nothing short of a changing of the guard occurring in the United States healthcare system, writ large, including the mental health system. While resources for traditional mental health services have been shrinking steadily over the last three decades, resources for mental health services delivered in public health contexts, such as primary care, are expanding. The new, much heralded …

Search for “mental health”, “stress”, “depression” or “anxiety” on the iOS or Android app stores and you’re confronted with a bewildering array of choices. While many of the apps appear well made, trustworthy, and are supported by positive user reviews, the vast majority of these have not been scientifically tested. Some may use evidence-based techniques and models, often drawn from …

Under the current administration, the past year has seen dramatic shifts in immigration policy, including increased immigration enforcement, travel bans targeting primarily Muslim countries, the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the rescission of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans, Haitians, and Nepalese (The White House, 2017). Although some of these policies are being litigated, …

During the past decades there has been a rapidly growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) like MBSR or MBCT. Although a number of clinical trials on MBIs have been conducted, the evidence base for MBIs is promising but still limited. Nevertheless, a rapid dissemination of MBIs has taken place and it can be argued that, in the case of MBIs, …

This SCP Blog piece by Drs. Levy, Springer, and Tolin discuss a recent meta-analytic review of remission in CBT for anxiety disorders published in Clinical Psychology Review.  The efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders is well established, at least in terms of pre- to post-treatment reductions in anxiety severity.  CBT generally outperforms waitlist controls, placebo controls, other psychological treatments …

This blog piece is a Q&A with Dr. Samuel Lustgarten on a recent article in Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice: “Technology use in mental health practice and research: Legal and ethical risks” (Lustgarten & Elhai, 2018) What legal and ethical risks do you think would be most surprising to the average psychologist in clinical practice? When I talk with other …

This SCP blog piece by Dr. Miya Barnett  discusses a recent article published in the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology on the role of lay health workers in addressing disparities in access to evidence-based practices. Multiple evidence-based practices have been developed and shown to be effective for treating common mental health disorders, such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and disruptive behavior …

This SCP Blog by Dr. Anu Asnaani is sponsored by the Diversity Committee of SCP and briefly explores contemporary issues in understanding immigrant mental health needs and challenges to detection and treatment of psychological distress in our global communities. One of our increasing challenges as mental health professionals domestically and internationally is ensuring we are meeting the needs of the …

This SCP Blog by Dr. Kathryn McHugh discusses a recent article published in Clinical Psychology Review about why gender matters in the study and treatment of substance use disorders. For many years, knowledge on the nature and treatment of substance use disorders was based on research conducted in males. The vast majority of research on substance use in women has …

This SCP blog piece by Drs. David Barlow and Matthew Gallagher discusses a new article in JAMA Psychiatry pertaining to the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders. Significant progress has been made in recent decades in identifying effective psychosocial treatments for anxiety and mood disorders. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatment protocols for specific disorders such as panic disorder are …

This SCP blog by Zalewski, Goodman, Cole, and McLaughlin corresponds with a new Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice article titled, “Clinical Considerations when Treating Adults who are Parents.” Flight attendants always instruct passengers to secure their own oxygen masks before assisting others. This simple practice reflects that parents can best help their children after ensuring their own well-being.  This basic …

This SCP blog by Karen Slade, Psy.D. correspondents with a new article in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology titled, “Outcomes of Psychological Therapies for Prisoners with Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. All over the world, people held in our jails and prisons experience far greater levels of mental illness than the general population including PTSD, major …

by Ava T. Casados about her recently published article in Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice Society holds negative attitudes about mental illness, and these attitudes form a stigma that impacts many individuals on both interpersonal levels (e.g., blaming, name-calling) and institutional levels (e.g., employment discrimination). The stigma experienced because of one’s mental illness can in turn exacerbate psychological symptoms and …

by Brittany M. Merrill, MS, Amy R. Altszuler, MS, & William E. Pelham, PhD Children with ADHD experience problems in daily life functioning in school, with their family, and with peers. Rather than focusing on symptoms of ADHD, treatment providers should focus on these impairments in daily life functioning when making recommendations, as these problems are the reason parents and teachers …

by Joyce Chu, PhD & Amy E. Leino, PhD Equal rights to equal access and equal care. Few would disagree with the position that the racial and ethnic minorities of our nation deserve the right to receive the same quality of care for mental illness as White individuals. Yet, striving for equal treatment has proven to be a complicated endeavor. …

by Brent W. Roberts, PhD Can you change your personality traits? We know from hundreds of observational studies that personality traits can and do change. The fact that personality traits are not “set in plaster” naturally leads to the question of volitional change—if someone or some institution sets about to change personality, can it be done? This question had long …

Do Beliefs About Biology Matter for Mental Health? by Kate MacDuffie and Tim Strauman about their newly published article in Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice Imagine that you have just visited a mental health professional and received a diagnosis of depression.  You have just been given a name for the distressing emotional state which, prior to your appointment, felt confusing and unpredictable.  The …

By Joseph Franklin, PhD and Jessica Ribeiro, PhD Suicide. For most people, this word conjures up images of someone who is extremely sad. Someone so lonely, stressed, or defeated that they’ve decided that they’d be better off dead. Some clinicians might add to this picture related characteristics such as emotion dysregulation, substance abuse, or impulsivity. Some researchers may include a …

Dr. Katie Eklund discusses the use of universal screening scores to predict distal academic and behavioral outcomes among school-aged youth. Research has well-documented poor school-related outcomes for students with behavioral and emotional concerns, including lower academic achievement, higher rates of suspension/expulsion, increased absenteeism, and lower graduation rates (e.g., Lane, Carter, Pierson, & Glaeser, 2006). As up to 20% of school-aged …

Guest blog author Dr. Torrey Creed discusses a recently published article in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology focused on implementing trans diagnostic cognitive therapy in diverse community settings with the Beck Community Initiative. Decades of research have led to evidence-based practices (EBPs) for a wide range of behavioral health concerns and populations (e.g., Hofmann et al., 2012), but …

The type of parenting a child receives can have profound impacts on the life trajectory of that child. For example, in contrast to punitive parenting we know positive parenting practices affords children many life advantages, including, building secure attachments, accelerated language development, greater readiness for school, reduced risk of antisocial behavior and substance abuse problems, improved physical health, and greater …

Classifications of mental disorders are a necessary evil. Without a comprehensive, consensual list of the kinds of problems human beings experience, the field of mental health would be continually swamped by the task of describing the nature of each person’s problem. Communication between professionals would break down. Selecting treatments and identifying conditions for research would be a free-for-all. Tracking the …

Social influences are a primary contributor of heavy drinking among young adults (Neighbors, Lee, Lewis, Fossos, & Larimer, 2007). Social norms refer to a specific source of influence defined as typical behavior (descriptive norms) or typical level of approval (injunctive norms) in a given reference group. For the purposes of our discussion we will limit our focus to descriptive norms. …

About two decades ago, psychologists who develop and study psychotherapy interventions began to recognize that publications on the efficacy of new psychotherapies were not sufficient to change practice. Shortly thereafter, research emerged that indicated that manuals and workshops alone were also not sufficient to change practice (see Herschell et al., 2010 for a summary). We are now at a point …

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has earned a position of high regard in the scheme of evidence-based treatment of psychological disorders. Yet, it shares some of the same difficulties faced by psychotherapy and medical practice in general. One such major problem is dropout. Dropout is the client’s discontinuation of treatment against the recommendations of the clinician. When this happens, many questions …

Emotional processing theory posits that the therapeutic benefits of exposure include habituation to the distress triggered by trauma memories (Lang, 1977) as well as their reorganization (Foa, Molnar, & Cashman, 1995). Trauma narratives among people with PTSD have been observed to have greater sensory, perceptual, and emotional references and interrupted temporal, causal and logical connections (O’Kearney & Perrott, 2006). Habituation …

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in its current format, was developed and implemented as an anti-depressive treatment in the 1970`s (Beck et al., 1979.). Ever since, the method has been in worldwide growth, gaining recognition and appraisal on its way to becoming the dominant force in the world of psychotherapy. Until recently, no thorough attempt had been made with regards to …

Direct-to-consumer marketing: The next wave of dissemination and implementation? Most Americans are familiar with the pharmaceutical advertisements that are featured in many forms of media. Many of these advertisements are for psychopharmaceutical interventions, which have recently been surpassing efficacious psychological treatments in outpatient mental health care (Olfson & Marcus, 2010). While traditional dissemination and implementation efforts (e.g., targeted at the …

This blog piece by Dr. James Boswell discusses a recent study published by his research team in Psychotherapy entitled, “Implementing routine outcome monitoring in clinical practice: Benefits, challenges, and solutions.” In their seminal paper, Howard, Moras, Brill, Martinovich, and Lutz (1996) suggested using standardized session-to-session measures of patient progress to evaluate and improve treatment outcome by using data-driven feedback. In doing …

This is a blog piece by Damion Grasso, Ph.D. (Division 12 Web Editor) that explores how we communicate information about treatment effectiveness to our patients. It draws from recent articles that discuss methods for translating results from psychotherapy research into probabilistic information that aims to inform treatment consumers. David is a middle-aged man who just one year ago was assaulted and …

This blog piece by guest blogger, Dr. John Pachankis, on behalf of Division 12’s Education and Training Committee, discusses recent efforts to establish evidence-based treatments for mental health and co-occurring psychosocial concerns (e.g., alcohol use, sexual compulsivity, sexual risk behavior) among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients. John Pachankis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology …

Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12, American Psychological Association) Response to NIMH Strategic Plan The Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12, American Psychological Association) represents the interests of clinical psychologists in the United States.  Its mission is to encourage and support the integration of psychological science and practice in education, research, application, advocacy and public policy. We thank NIMH for …

Neurorehabilitation and Modular-Based Psychotherapy for the Co-Management of Nervous System Injury and Comorbid Psychopathology  – By Saritha Teralandur Saritha is a second year M.S. student at DePaul University. Her research interests include child and adolescent psychology and neuropsychology.  This blog piece explores neurorehabilitation, a personalized, multidisciplinary treatment approach designed to concurrently address impairment caused by nervous system injury, as well …

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA; P. L. 111-148) is ushering in a new era for the training and education in clinical psychology. Yet, little is known about the potential impact of this healthcare reform on our field moving forward. In our article (Chor, Olin, & Hoagwood, 2014), we describe features of the ACA-funded Mental and …

Risk of lifetime exposure to a potentially traumatic event (PTE) increases exponentially across the lifespan until non-exposed individuals are rare.1 Although a minority of individuals in the general population develop trauma-related emotional and behavioral problems,2 this is not true of multiply traumatized or poly-victimized individuals.3-5 These experiences can start to accumulate very early in life with potential to disrupt normal …