Psychotherapy Blog

There is a growing movement among therapists to make their therapy outcome data available to prospective clients. Why should therapists considering doing this? Tracking and publishing outcomes can help both clients and therapists by:

• Helping clients make informed decisions when picking therapists
• Improving therapy effectiveness (as shown in research by Lambert, Miller, Duncan and others)
• Demonstrating the overall high effectiveness of psychotherapy

Here is an example of how I have published my outcomes on my website.  Other examples are here. 

An important question is: what is the best way to present outcomes? Should therapists simply present their outcome data alone, or compare it to studies from the literature? What studies are valid comparisons, and what statistical methods are appropriate?

Of course, many therapists have serious concerns about making their outcomes public. What if the data is misunderstood by clients? What if admitting treatment failures is somehow used against me by managed care payers? What about cases that are not accurately represented by outcome measures? These are important questions that need to be addressed. The therapist community would be well served by addressing these questions before the government or managed care decide for us.

The American Psychological Association now mandates that all training sites require trainees to use outcome measures. It is natural to expect that trainees who have good results will at some point say, “What can I do with this data?” This question will only grow more pressing with time.

For a list of other therapists who make their outcomes available to the public, see here. If you or someone you know published your outcomes, please email me, and I’ll add you to the list!