CV

Derek Truscott, PhD, is a Professor and Director of Training of Counselling Psychology at the University of Alberta and a Registered Psychologist. He is the author of three books, including Becoming an Effective Psychotherapist, as well as many book chapters, articles, and conference presentations on the topic of good—that is, ethical and effective—psychotherapy. He has practiced, researched, taught, lectured, and written about applied psychology for over thirty-five years. Additional information at www.DerekTruscott.com

KEYNOTE ABSTRACT

Improving psychotherapy outcomes: the power and potential of feedback
Psychotherapy works, and works well. Yet its effectiveness has not changed for as long as we have been measuring it, and all therapies have been found to be equally effective. Research has clearly established that better outcomes will never be achieved by practicing a more effective therapy—they are produced by practicing therapy more effectively. This entails therapists creating a situation conducive to clients resolving the distress that prompted them to seek help. Our challenge is that the processes empirically proven to be associated with treatment effectiveness involve the client’s experience of therapy. If we collect ongoing feedback on beneficial processes, we can tailor every therapy for each client to increase our effectiveness one encounter and one client at a time. In this keynote I will describe the use of client feedback in training and practice as a promising method for enabling therapists to become more helpful more often.