Research and development in psychological therapies has been a prime focus throughout my career. For the discipline of psychology as a whole, this field is centrally important to both theory and application.
My current and recent research work in this field is mainly with colleagues
at the Psychological Therapies
Research Centre, University of Leeds. We have reviewed the work
of our own and other groups on temporal
parameters of change in psychotherapy. More recent studies of
change mechanisms within psychodynamic-interpersonal and cognitive-behavioural
therapies address such questions as:
What are the most productive patterns of therapeutic alliance development over the course of therapy?
What are the relative contributions of cognitive therapy competence and therapeutic alliance to the outcome of cognitive therapy for depression.
Do early sudden gains predict treatment outcome in routine clinic settings.
How much benefit is derived by clients who fail to complete cognitive therapy for depression.
