Leading researchers' consensus on psychotherapy research findings: Implications for the teaching and conduct of psychotherapy.

Abstract

We examined leading international psychotherapy researchers’ views on psychotherapy outcome research. Participants completed a questionnaire on which they rated level of research evidence for or against various assertions about psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Participants rated how confident they were that the assertions were supported by psychotherapy research. Strong, or relatively strong, consensus was achieved on several of the questionnaire items. Areas for which relative uniformity of opinion does or does not exist have potential implications for the teaching and conduct of psychotherapy and for the science–practice interface in psychotherapy. Additionally, consensus about psychotherapy findings can be used as a yardstick by which to measure practicing clinicians’ knowledge of the research. In 1949 at the Boulder Conference, the profession of clinical psychology declared its allegiance to the goal of integrating science and practice and cast the field in the “scientist–practitioner model,” or the Boulder Model (Raimy, 1950). Additionally, at the Vail Conference in 1973, the profession of clinical psychology addressed the science–practice interface but endorsed a “professional model” of training focused on practitioner training issues and psychologists as consumers and users of research (Korman, 1974). Both the Boulder and Vail Conferences emphasized the knowledge and use of psychological research in clinical practice. A central mission of the profession of psychology was to accumulate scientific knowledge in order to advance the understanding