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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper that examines the questions of whether or not psychotherapy (counseling) is effective. This literature review examines the parameters of the ongoing debate concerning how best to validate therapeutic practices and also looks at current empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of psychotherapy, which is a body of evidence that supports the efficacy of psychotherapy and counseling interventions. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khpsyeff.rtf
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for practice, but also to legitimize psychological services (Peebles, 2000). As a result of this current focus on accountability, both government policymakers and managed care companies have shown a preference
toward medical and pharmacological approaches to mental health disorders in their clinical guidelines (Peebles, 2000). This has left mental health care practitioners scrambling to demonstrate the validity of therapeutic counseling
interventions. While a considerable body of research has shown that psychotherapy can result in positive outcomes for patients, these results continue to be met with skepticism (Peebles, 2000). Therefore, the
following literature review examines the parameters of this debate, and also looks at current empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of psychotherapy, which is a body of evidence that supports the
efficacy of psychotherapy and counseling interventions. Ablon and Jones (2002) report that there is a sharp debate in clinical research literature regarding the best method for empirically validating psychiatric
treatments. Efficacy studies focus on the establishing a causal relationship between the treatment provided and the outcome (Ablon and Jones, 2002). These studies rely on clinical trial methods in which
the participants are randomly selected to undergo different therapy treatment in closely controlled conditions (Ablon and Jones, 2002). It is assumed that any change that occurs in participants behavior
across treatment conditions can be attributed as a causal effect of the treatment (Ablon and Jones, 2002). The problem with these studies is that, by setting up scientific parameters for
the study, the conditions under which therapy is conducted no longer resembles the reality of clinical practice. Criticism of this method of therapy validation posits that these studies test a
form of therapy as a "somewhat artificial treatment in an artificially controlled setting with atypical patients" (Ablon and Jones, 2002, p. 775). Consequently, the results of such studies bear little
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