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.