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What works for whom: Tailoring psychotherapy to the person
Author(s) -
Norcross John C.,
Wampold Bruce E.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20764
Subject(s) - psychotherapist , psychology , spirituality , task (project management) , session (web analytics) , context (archaeology) , cognitive reframing , coping (psychology) , resistance (ecology) , alternative medicine , medicine , economics , biology , paleontology , management , pathology , world wide web , computer science , ecology
This article introduces the issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session devoted to evidence‐based means of adapting psychotherapy to the patient's (transdiagnostic) characteristics. Practitioners have long realized that treatment should be tailored to the individuality of the patient and the singularity of his or her context, but only recently has sufficient empirical research emerged to reliably guide practice. This article reviews the work of an interdivisional task force and its dual aims of identifying elements of effective therapy relationships (what works in general) and identifying effective methods of adapting treatment to the individual patient (what works in particular). The task force judged four patient characteristics (reactance/resistance, preferences, culture, religion/spirituality) to be demonstrably effective in adapting psychotherapy and another two (stages of change, coping style) as probably effective. Two more patient facets (expectations, attachment style) were related to psychotherapy outcome but possessed insufficient research as a means of adaptation. This special issue provides research‐supported methods of individualizing psychotherapy to the person, in addition to his or her diagnosis. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 67:127–132, 2011.