The Shrink Tank

Psychotherapy in practice, research, and pop culture.

by Jared DeFife, Ph.D.

Treating depression: Many major brands of psychotherapy are equally effective

By Jared DeFife, Ph.D. on December 30, 2008 in The Shrink Tank

It's 2am. You're having trouble sleeping. Again. You've cried nearly every day for the past two weeks, have stopped talking to your friends, and your favorite activities just don't provide the same enjoyment they used to. You've decided that it's time to get help. You'd like to talk to someone, to get therapy, but what kind?

A new major study has been published in the most recent issue of The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association (APA), suggesting that many major brands of psychotherapy are equally effective for the treatment of mild-to-moderate depression in adults. Read More

Temperament Mapping to Therapeutic Approach?

Submitted by SteveM on December 31, 2008 - 5:50am.

I have been fascinated with psychological typing ever since I took the Myers-Briggs test some years ago. Knowing my M-B profile, I recognize "how" I think is different than how people with other temperaments may think.

That said, whether it's M-B or some other construct, temperaments can be generally categorized. That begs the question as to whether the individual success of a treatment modality is correlated with personality type. For example, an ENTP like me may appreciate an incisively analytic relationship while someone with another type would feel more comfortable with a therapeutic method that engages in a deeper emotional exploration.

If the correlation is genuine, then at the start of an engagement, a patient could be instructed to take a profile assessment online and read over his type profile description and report back his type result to the therapist. The therapist could engage in a brief discussion of the results with the patient to validate the type assignment. I.e., "Do you recognize yourself in the description profile of a "WXYZ" type?"

If the patient generally agrees, then the therapist would have narrowed the terrain substantially on how the patient thinks and could select a collaborative therapeutic approach that is aligned with the patient's temperament.

That seems pretty simple. Am I missing something? Does it make sense?

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Re: Temperament Mapping to Therapeutic Approach?

Submitted by Jared DeFife, Ph.D. on December 31, 2008 - 7:28am.

Steve, Thank you for your response, and I want to say that I am wowed by your comments! Personality factors (measured by scales such as the Myers-Briggs index) are highly related to different aspects of the psychotherapy process. Personality assessment is an exciting part of my research, teaching, and practice. In your response, you describe a therapeutic process that psychologists use which has been called a Therapeutic Model of Assessment. This process starts with the patient completing various personality measures (the M-B is one example, and there are a host of other tools that can be used such as the Personality Assessment Inventory, Rorschach Inkblot Method, 16PF, MMPI). When that data is collected, therapist and patient sit down together and review the results in a feedback session. Asking the patient what they recognize in themselves or not from the results is one of the key components of this process! Using this information, patient and therapist work together to gain a greater understanding of the patient's concerns, strengths, struggles, and coping styles. From that understanding they collaboratively form treatment goals and identify a therapeutic approach towards achieving those goals. A Therapeutic Model of Assessment has been shown to reduce treatment drop-out, improve the quality of the patient/therapist relationship, enhance treatment outcome, and increase patients' feelings of being heard and understood. So, not only does what you wrote make sense, it's also smart practice. And like you said, it's pretty simple to implement. Thanks again for your thoughts and I hope that you continue to read further! -JD

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CBT for children and adults by computer

Submitted by Dr Mark Jones on January 1, 2009 - 7:40am.

I did a PhD to help children with medical issues using CBT.
Moms have used it for many issues.
We have the support of Dr Chris Steele MBE the TV doctor.
You can have a free trail at www.Animalagentz.com
How it works: Children do not understand ‘how’ to relax on demand, but through playing with the Animal Agentz, they learn such techniques and can repeat them in stressful situations. Your child will remember the actions and behaviours of Bubbles the fish, Yo-Yo the cat and the other AnimalAgentz and use them when they need to remain calm.

As one mum said “If you say to a child relax it means nothing to them but if you let your child play with the Animal Agentz “fish” (breathing skills) and then say to the child what did the fish do?
Then I found him acting out the fish and becoming relaxed”

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Jared DeFife, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and research scientist at Emory University and Associate Director of the Laboratory of Personality and Psychopathology.

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