Research and Psychotherapy

Lester Luborsky, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has engaged in psychotherapy research for the past forty years. He is author of eight books and close to 400 articles and chapters. He has received numerous professional awards, including the Gold Medal Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Applications of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation and the Sigourney Award for Research in Psychoanalysis from the American Psychoanalytic Association. He was recently honored by the Society for Psychotherapy Research with a celebration of his contributions to psychotherapy research.Ellen Luborsky, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice, with training from the Cornell Medical Center and the N.Y.U. Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She also consults and speaks on topics related to early development. She is the author, with Susan Klebanoff, of a book on depression for teens. She has also written articles on psychotherapy research and on play therapy.

• Chapter 1 Preface: The Book's BeginningsPart 2 The Vital Link Between Research and PsychotherapyChapter 3 The Links Between Research & PsychotherapyChapter 4 The Essence of Supportive-Expressive (SE) PsychotherapyChapter 5 The Essence of SE Session-Limited PsychotherapyPart 6 Clinical Research MethodsChapter 7 The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) MethodChapter 8 The Symptom-Context MethodChapter 9 The Health-Sickness Rating Scale (HSRS) MethodChapter 10 The Helping-Alliance (HA) MethodsPart 11 Doing Supportive-Expressive (SE) PsychotherapyChapter 12 The Opening Phase of SE PsychotherapyChapter 13 The Supportive Relationship: Its Hows and WhysChapter 14 Expressive Techniques: Ways of Listening and UnderstandingChapter 15 Expressive Techniques: Ways of RespondingChapter 16 The Closing Phase of SE PsychotherapyPart 17 Combining and Comparing SE Psychotherapy with Other TreatmentsChapter 18 Combining Medication with SE PsychotherapyChapter 19 Comparing and Combining PsychotherapiesPart 20 Summaries: Linking Research and PsychotherapyChapter 21 The Steps in SE Psychotherapy: A ReviewChapter 22 Twenty New Ideas for Clinical ResearchChapter 23 The Interplay of Clinical Hunches with Research DiscoveriesChapter 24 Appendix A: CCRT Scoring: Standard CategoriesChapter 25 Appendix B: Helping Alliance Questionnaire—IChapter 26 Appendix C: Rating Scales for SE and SE Session-Limited Psychotherapy

Among this book's many contributions, two are particularly stellar. First, the book provides a treatment manual that conveys what the therapist ought to do, say, and assess and how to watch, listen, and formulate what transpires in the session. In the therapy business, treatment manuals are not that novel these days. However, a manual for psychodynamic therapy that contains concrete assessment guidelines and explicit directives on how to use the information during ongoing treatment is quite special. The manual presents principles to guide the therapist in concrete ways and describes processes and therapist-patient exchanges that make the treatment replicable for research or practice. Second, the book elaborates four methods that Luborsky has developed toidentify core conflicts, the context in which symptoms appear, pretreatment health and sickness, and therapeutic alliance (core conflictual relationship theme, symptom-context method, Health-Sickness Rating Scale, and helpingalliance methods, respectively). Finally and perhaps foremost, the book provides a model of integrating research and practice? namely, developing and using validated measures of key constructs, obtaining data that are pertinent to individual patients, and tracking progress by using