Empirically Supported Treatments: the Deconstruction of a Myth

@article{citeulike:2805534, abstract = {This article summarizes recent findings from analyses and meta-analyses of psychotherapy research that show that so-called empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are no more effective than are traditional psychotherapies. In addition, the findings show that specific modalities and techniques have little, if anything at all, to do with therapeutic benefits and that client improvement and therapeutic outcome are instead the result of other factors in the therapeutic situation such as the alliance, the therapist, the relationship, and other contextual factors. The article shows how these findings deconstruct the whole notion of ESTs and make the current debate about them meaningless. Finally, the article discusses implications of the findings and urges humanistic psychologists and other proponents of traditional psychotherapies to shift the debate away from modalities and techniques and to focus on the factors that are actually responsible for therapeutic benefits. 10.1177/0022167807302003}, author = {Elkins, David N. }, citeulike-article-id = {2805534}, doi = {10.1177/0022167807302003}, journal = {Journal of Humanistic Psychology}, keywords = {evidence-based, review, therapy, treatment}, month = {October}, number = {4}, pages = {474--500}, posted-at = {2008-05-16 17:17:48}, priority = {3}, title = {Empirically Supported Treatments: the Deconstruction of a Myth}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022167807302003}, volume = {47}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2805534 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2805534 TI - Empirically Supported Treatments: the Deconstruction of a Myth JF - Journal of Humanistic Psychology VL - 47 IS - 4 SP - 474 EP - 500 N2 - This article summarizes recent findings from analyses and meta-analyses of psychotherapy research that show that so-called empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are no more effective than are traditional psychotherapies. In addition, the findings show that specific modalities and techniques have little, if anything at all, to do with therapeutic benefits and that client improvement and therapeutic outcome are instead the result of other factors in the therapeutic situation such as the alliance, the therapist, the relationship, and other contextual factors. The article shows how these findings deconstruct the whole notion of ESTs and make the current debate about them meaningless. Finally, the article discusses implications of the findings and urges humanistic psychologists and other proponents of traditional psychotherapies to shift the debate away from modalities and techniques and to focus on the factors that are actually responsible for therapeutic benefits. 10.1177/0022167807302003 KW - evidence-based KW - review KW - therapy KW - treatment AU - Elkins, David PY - 2007/10/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022167807302003 ER -