We Know Psychotherapy Works, Now Lets Prove It

We live in a culture that adores the idea of the scientific method. You have something you don’t know, you follow a set of rules, and POOF—you have a new truth. Even if that’s never exactly how it happens, believing that science is magically simple and consistent is rather enticing. After all, who wouldn’t want to live in a world where the formula for solving the world’s problems is infallible?

Mass media rarely focuses on all of the experiments that didn’t work: all of the budding theories that were so close to being a breakthrough in our conception of the world. Media rarely shows the failures of science—with the exception of psychology. Psychology: the soft science. The science that can’t really be called a science because it’s all fuzzy guesswork based on theories that aren’t always conclusive.

Our culture isn’t sure how it feels about psychotherapy. Take a drug, it changes your brain chemistry, and you get better. Now that’s a strong formula. It’s often more difficult to convince people that variations of talk therapy can either aid in the success of a medication, or render the medication unnecessary altogether. Just like it’s easier to believe that the scientific method is foolproof, it’s easier to believe that popping a pill can solve all of our problems.

“We trained students for a world that no longer exists,” APS Fellow Varda Shoham stated at the 24^th APS Annual Convention, “the clinical psychologists are no longer the only front line providers of mental health service.” So what can clinical psychologists do to adapt to this cynical, over-medicated new world? Empirically tracking the success of therapeutic endeavors might be just the kind of proof of efficacy mental health patients are craving.

Advances in medical technology have the capacity to modernize psychological practices in astounding ways. A brand new tool for clinical psychologists is Mobile Therapy, which has the capability to provide exactly the type of empirical tracking that illustrates the efficacy of practices and medications, distinguishing the modern clinician as a new, innovative breed of therapist. The software is comprised of an online dashboard for clinicians and an app on their patients’ smartphones. The app notifies each patient to provide updates throughout the day by answering questions that the clinician has customized to address the patient’s specific needs.

This app improves the extent of access patients have to psychological therapy, as patients can have confidence that what they provide to the app is being analyzed through scientifically-validated data that increases the clinician’s understanding of their unique situation. It likewise improves the quality of access clinicians have to their patients because they get a clear sense of what’s going on between visits. And—thanks to the app features that run in the background of the phone—clinicians can even get clear data on the things their patients can’t articulate.

Now clinical psychologists have the tools to fight the criticism that “therapists can’t prove that their methods work.” Visit www.mobiletherapy.com to see how software can make being a therapist a simpler science.

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How Mobile Technology can Fill in the Gaps between Therapy Sessions

The Internet seems to be the solution to everything: education, entertainment, socializing, even healthcare. It’s the self-help book that’s updated every millisecond, feeding us with more information than we could possibly absorb from every angle that we can imagine. But can it be a substitute for mental health therapy?

            As a therapist, you know that a generalized article posted online and a few nifty smartphone apps can’t replace the one-on-one care that you provide. As far along as we may be in our technological advancement, the average Joe doesn’t have access to the level of artificial intelligence you’ve seen in “Her,” where he can develop a complete relationship with a computerized system. New research (Source) has, however, suggested that people might be more comfortable disclosing emotional matters to their screens than they are to another person. Even a Skype session with a therapist can be more fruitful (Source)—in some cases—than a face-to-face visit

 But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this research is that people exhibited more honest self-disclosure when they weren’t communicating with someone in real-time. Since the subjects of the study knew that researchers were going to be monitoring their responses later, you would think that they would share as openly as though they were sharing directly with another person, right? Not so—just the temporary distance was enough to give the subjects a sense of greater privacy. But as a therapist who knows firsthand the value of in-person mental health treatment, how can you use this information to improve your therapy practice?

SelfEcho's Mobile Therapy product is a real-time patient monitoring system that allows you to fill in the knowledge-gaps between sessions with the in-the-moment honesty your patients can express on the comfortable platform of their smartphone. Throughout the day, the Mobile Therapy app will send them customizable reminders to take note of the information that will be useful to you, such as how they’re feeling at the time given their surroundings and activities. The app will also run in the background, picking up on certain data passively. This data will then be tracked and communicated with you through the friendly interface of your own Self Echo Dashboard so that you can empirically monitor the efficacy of your treatments.

In short, maybe your patients can be more honest when they aren’t with you, but now, you can use that to help you both.

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Is Someone Else’s Negativity Bringing You Down?

A positive mindset is important to living a happy and successful life, but this is much easier said than done. One of the most common objections to “why I can be positive” is that someone else around you is creating negativity. Each of us knows a Negative Nancy or Debbie Downer, and this is a valid objection, since someone else who is perpetually criticizing can generally diminish your cheerful outlook or incite a reactionary response leading to an escalation of negativity. Though it would be ideal to avoid these individuals, sometimes they are our family members, bosses, or co-workers and are firmly implanted in our lives.

Many of us would like to remain upbeat but when met with resistance or attack we crumble because we do not know how to combat this challenge. Barbara Fredrickon, a leading researcher and pioneer in Positive Psychology offers 3 practical steps to follow to help diffuse negativity, whether it be an argumentative spouse or a pessimistic coworker. Through these techniques we can avoid being pulled to into negativity or escalating the situation and often help the other individual or ourselves see new perspectives.

1. Modify the Situation Ask yourself tough questions like:

• What are my pre-judgements or hidden assumptions about this person? 
• How might this be influencing my behavior toward them? 
• Am I baiting them somehow? 

Experiment with your own behavior when you interact with them. Try expressing more warmth, ask more questions, show particular interest in the lighter messages they convey, find ways to infuse humor, compassion and hope. Above all else don’t respond to negativity with more negativity. Avoid taking their comments personally and do your best to shift the perspective from half-empty to half-full. Meet their hostility with kindness; it is difficult for someone to be negative when he or she is in the presence of love and kindness.

 2. Attend Differently Look to the positive attributes of this person. Consider how you might give voice to what you appreciate about them. Work on enhancing the strengths of the relationship to mitigate the weaknesses. Complement them and highlight these strengths. People love to live up to the expectations that have been set for them and their behavior will reflect whatever you reinforce.

3. Change Meanings Some people, no matter what you do, will forever be Negative Nancy’s. In a situation like this ask yourself, ”Could this person -or this situation- be a teacher in disguise?” Instead of seeing this person as a weight pulling you down, reframe the situation to make it a challenge–an opportunity for you to practice being more mindful, less judgmental, or more compassionate. You always have a choice in how you react.

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