Janessa Holman
Psych.451- Intro. To Psychotherapy
03/31/2016
Paper #3: Research Review
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, while being responsible for influencing all other forms of subsequent therapy, has a prevalent discounting in modern psychological circles, as well as present-day media (Wolitzsky, 33-34). Due in part to a growing emphasis on Cognitive Behavior Therapy and its supposed superior effectiveness, as well as a reluctance on the part of its forefathers to submit their patients to research methodology, believing it improbable for a study to measure treatment benefits, such as insight, freedom from inner constraints, etc., Psychodynamic Therapy has been brushed aside as an ineffective therapy, due to a supposed lack of empirical research support (Shedler, 1). Dr. Jonathan Shedler argues that this presumption is entirely false, for though “evidence based” is typically utilized to refer to “a group of therapies conducted according to instruction manuals (‘manualized’ therapies) (Shedler, 1), this does not negate the
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depression, anxiety, somatic disorders. Rather psychodynamic therapy has proved its effectiveness by disputing arguments of ineffectiveness. It has been used to treat a broad spectrum of psychological perceptions and concerns alongside other therapeutic studies, such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. According to a meta-analysis conducted by researchers Robinson, Berman, and Neimeyer in 1990, the combined findings of 37 individual psychotherapy studies concerned specifically with outcomes in the treatment of depression, had an overall effect size of 0.73. By proving its general effectiveness in measurement against all other kinds of treatment, Psychodynamic Therapy proves its worth as a viable treatment