Book review: Empirically Supported Therapies: Best Practice in Professional Psychology.

Abstract

KEITH S. DOBSON and KENNETH D. CRAIG (Eds.) Empirically Supported Therapies: Best Practice in Professional Psychology Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998, 333 pages (ISBN 0-7619-1076-X, US$36.95, Softcover) Reviewed by DAVID R. EVANS Since 1969, when the first Banff Conference was held, the focus has continued to be on treatment and its validity. The Banff Conference was conceived as a way to bring together leaders in behaviour therapy to present and discuss their evolving behavioural treatments and the empirical support for them. In many ways the focus of this book on empirically supported therapies comes full circle to remind us of the importance of the empirical support for the therapies we employ, and the original goals of the Banff Conference. The book is divided into two sections devoted to general theoretical issues on the one hand and empirically validated treatments in specific areas on the other. The lead chapter is by Paul Crits-Christoph, a member of the APA Division 12 task force. He discusses the task force report, some of the reactions to it, and some of the future concerns and possibilities. The chapter provides a good overview for the reader and an orientation for the rest of the book. Steven C. Hayes is the author of the second chapter devoted to a consideration of political, economic, and professional forces that argue for, and at times against, the adoption of scientific practice guidelines in psychological practice. This is a significant contribution to the book because it is important that all practicing psychologists understand the external forces demanding that we work toward empirical support for all of the treatments we employ. In the third chapter, Larry E. Beutler and Mary Baker address a number of methodological issues that must be considered in the design of research to provide empirical validation for a treatment, including therapy models and patient individual differences. This chapter captures the complexity required in future empirical research compared to many of our current and early ventures. Chapter 4 by John R. Weisz provides a good overview of empirical validation studies of treatments for children and adolescents, and raises three major concerns with current studies in the area. This contribution, although devoted to children and adolescents, alerts us to the importance of developmentally related variables such as context and age-specific condition when we are designing empirical validation studies. The last chapter in the first section is by Anna Beth Doyle, who draws our attention to culture, another major factor that must be considered as empirically supported treatments are identified. The author of this chapter claims that there are almost no empirical studies assessing the effectiveness of specific treatments with minority culture clients. This suggests an important area for future research in the development of culture-specific treatments and their empirical validation. The lead chapter in the second section of the book is authored by Peter D. McLean and Kent W. Anderson, and is focused on the evolution of empirically validated treatments for depression. The authors also discuss the interplay between factors related to various therapeutic orientations and empirical findings. This chapter provides a good overview of theory, research, and future directions in the treatment of depression. In Chapter 7, Andrew Christensen and Neil S. Jacobson discuss traditional behavioural couples therapy, their integrative behavioural couples therapy, and preliminary data comparing the two approaches. They conclude their chapter with a brief overview of some of their ideas about the difficulties of executing empirical studies of therapy, particularly couples therapy. …