Developing and Delivering Practice-Based Evidence

Reviews / Votes

"The field of psychotherapy has witnessed an increasing emphasis onthe need for research evidence that can inform clinicalpractice. As this volume most clearly illustrates, however,there is also an important need for clinical practice to offerinput on the effectiveness of our treatments. More than justproviding lip service to closing the gap between research andpractice, this edited volume gives us specific suggestions andguidelines for how this may be done. Indeed, it is a majorcontribution in our search for therapy interventions that have botha firm grounding in research evidence and converging support fromclinical reality." --Marvin R. Goldfried, PhD, ABPP, DistinguishedProfessor of Psychology, Stony Brook University, USA "We are now familiar with evidence based practice that haspowerfully influenced service provision in the psychologicaltherapies. As practitioners however, we are acutely aware ofits limitations. Research that informs the evidence base we areroutinely referred to is distant and remote from our experience. Itfeels disempowering as our every day practice is influenced byrandomised controlled trials that espouse a medical model that doesnot reflect the diversity and complexity of practice ascounsellors, psychotherapists and psychologist know it. Weare acutely aware that clients with a single diagnosis are rare andthat our clients come in unique packages that could never becaptured in a meaningful group that could reliably be randomisedfor trial purposes. Practitioners have been marginalised anddisempowered by current research paradigms and it is time for achange. This book provides just the change in emphasis that we are lookingfor and indeed hungry for. It provides a comprehensive account ofeverything a practitioner needs to know about the generation ofpractice based evidence. It is just the book that is neededto inspire practitioners to engage with research through meetingwith others in practitioner networks or influencing the agenciesthey work in, to start collecting data. A ground swell ofresearcher practitioners engaging in meaningful research with theirown clients or agencies can influence theory and practice for thefuture. Indeed practice based evidence could become the newevidence based practice. Many advocates of practitioner research, who have themselvesalready made substantial contributions to theory and practicethrough the development of theories, instruments and systems havecontributed to this book. Indeed, it is a potentially historicaltext that captures in one volume the assembled knowledge of thevanguard who will lead essential changes in the way that knowledgeis generated in the field of psychotherapy. It has the potential tobe revolutionary as it becomes a recommended text for psychotherapyresearchers and practitioners that will herald a shift in howresearch is conducted, who does it, how it is reported and theinfluence it will have on future services." --Professor Sue Wheeler, Director of Counselling andPsychotherapy Programme, University of Leicester, UK