What’s Next in Mental Health?

Bruce Wampold - Moving Beyond Comparing Psychotherapies

Dr. Bruce Wampold is Emeritus Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was, until his retirement, the Director of The Research Institute at Modum Bad Psychiatric Center, Vikersund, Norway. The American Psychological Association and Society for Psychotherapy Research have both granted him awards to celebrate his career and contributions to psychotherapy research. He has authored or co-authored nine books and countless book chapters and research papers and pioneered the Contextual model of Psychotherapy. The debate, whether some psychotherapies are superior to others, started decades ago. At the turn of the millenium the first edition of Dr. Bruce Wampold’s book, The Great Psychotherapy Debate raised the discussion to a new level. According to Wampold’s contextual model of psychotherapy the specific treatment is secondary to more important factors influencing outcomes e.g. the therapist relationship, healing context, explanation for distress and the therapeutic actions that are consistent with the explanation. In this episode we ask Dr. Wampold about his path to becoming a psychotherapy researcher and his views on psychotherapy research and the possibilities beyond comparing different psychotherapies. Episode time stamps: 0:1:25 From mathematics and teaching to psychotherapy research 0:4:00 The traditional way of viewing psychotherapy 0:6:30 Randomized clinical trials and their limits 0:10:50 What happens when people heal in psychotherapy? In Dr. Wampold’s view, we already know a lot about how psychotherapy works 0:16:25 Differences between therapists and how therapist characteristics like empathy affect outcomes. 0:19:10 Dismantling studies in psychotherapy - what are the results? 0:27:10 Can focusing on the most effective treatment lead to overlooking more relevant factors? How important is diagnosis in tailoring treatment? 0:37:20 How can we improve the system? Affecting therapist training. 0:48:06 Therapist flexibility and breadth of expertise relative to client needs 0:57:10 How can we help psychotherapy continue to evolve in the future?