Theories Journal

The Miller & Rose (2009) article discusses some of the active ingredients in motivational interviewing, and examines some variables that may impact behavior change after participating in MI. Here, the authors emphasize that it is a combination of technical and common factors. I liked their analysis of variables are often under researched such as the efficacy of the trainings provided by the organization and the therapist ability to follow through on protocol. In other theories, I have seen a promotion of their trainings, but not necessarily a follow through on examining their effectiveness on actual behavior change. In this article, the authors talk about how it is the slope of change that truly impacts behavior change, and not just the overall ratio between change talk and sustain talk. I wonder if this specifically has to do with the applicability of MI to certain populations, as the groups who started higher seemed to not have a good ability to change their behavior after. Conce...

The Elliott & Greenberg (2007) article lays out the basic components of emotion focused therapy (EFT). The five essential processes include neo-humanistic values, process experiential emotion theory, person-centered but process-guiding relational stance, therapist exploratory style, and marker guided task strategy. There are also six treatment principles that are summarized to help therapist do this theory. The idea behind emotion focused therapy is that people often come into therapy in times of high crisis and that addressing client emotions and providing a safe and adaptive space for them to be able to process these emotions will help them recover from their psychological distress. I think the basic components of this theory are incredibly important, especially in the first couple of sessions where the therapeutic relationship is being developed and the client may have a lot on their mind with no one to consistently talk to. Additionally, I thought their understanding of empathy...

 The Teasdale (2004) discusses the thought process behind Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) as well as the original efficacy studies. The article discusses how mindfulness can be used to prevent relapse for depression, but possibly only for groups who have had more than three depressive episodes. I like the MBCT theory in comparison to some others, for it seems like it focuses on a real-life problem (relapse for depression) and controls it to common alternatives. Often, I feel like relapse is seen as a necessary evil in the mental health field and in other therapies is remedied by things like maintenance sessions (IPT). The article also discusses some of the neurological conceptualizations of mindfulness, which is useful in understanding their analogies to the different cognitive modes and how one can switch back and forth. This is another aspect of the study I like, for again I feel like a lot of research for mental health focuses on symptom reduction and prevention (both...

 The article by Israeli & Santor (2000) highlights four unique aspects of feminist theory approaches to psychotherapy and discusses their use and efficacy. The four aspects include consciousness raising, social and gender role analysis, resocialization, and social activism. After reading this article, I am a little unclear as to if feminist theory views itself as an adjunct treatment to other therapies or as its own therapy that could be useful by itself for a variety of disorders. In many of the studies proposed, it appeared that feminist was combined with something else. This brings up the idea for me of the need for a theory, and the use of additive treatment and saying that it is useful. The famous example of this is the CBT + hat compared to waitlist trial and saying the hat therapy is effective. Although I do not think this is the case with feminist theory, the lack of well designed studies looking at its efficacy alone was a little surprising to me. However, this was an ...

In the Markowitz & Weissman (2012) article, the authors explain the history of interpersonal psychotherapy for depression as well as what key aspects of depression it emphasizes. Here, the authors discuss how IPT was among the first to use randomized clinical trials and wait to disseminate their research until they had done multiple tests. This made me think about the difference in psychology compared to other disciplines. In psychology, as long as a researcher can achieve a significant result, they can publish and spark interest in the field. Then, a therapist read the article and use some techniques proposed. Although this is part of the scientific process, it feels very different than science processes like food science or biology where some type of governing body has to approve of it based on the research in order to disseminate it to the public. Although the APA often comes out with lists of evidence based treatments, it is interesting that there is not much of a limit on what...

The Bornstein, 2005 discussed the phenomenon of psychoanalytic concepts being taken from the original discipline and transformed into non-psychoanalytic concepts. Throughout, the author makes the argument that those within the psychoanalytic tradition need to not only emphasize these instances of concepts being co-opted, but also to teach psychoanalysis in a way that does not bias students and the public against it. Although this is a good way of framing the issue, I wonder how feasible it is to continue doing this into the next 40-60 years. With new waves of therapy and mechanistic technology emerging, I wonder how motivated clinicians and researchers will be to continue fighting for psychoanalytic therapy. Throughout this article, I kept wondering at what point the argument chalks up to sunken cost fallacy. In general, it is hard to let go of a theory that a researcher has thought about a lot and has worked on for years. This is not to say that psychoanalytic concepts are not useful ...