Methodology of Inquiring “Therapy Failure” in Psychotherapy Research: Practical Guide for Clinical Practitioners and Researchers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, iran

2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of Psychology and Exceptional Children Education, Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

5 Department of Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University,Iran

6 Department of Clinical psychology, School of Behavioral Sciences & Mental Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

7 PhD in Psychology, Department of Psychology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Psychotherapy is one of the most important and attractive directions in psychology. Most of the researches are concentrating on the statistical and clinical significance of psychological treatment in comparing a given treatment group with the other groups or placebo ones. It is worth noting that therapy leads always to no positive outcome. Sometimes it makes some clients worse and some of them remain without any change (no change). The therapy failure has been ignored. The focus on statistical and clinical significance which is predominantly evaluated using quantitative pre-post outcome questionnaires remains unclear what this means for clients in their real situations. To do this, it is needed to combine treatment evaluation with quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. This paper aimed to provide a theoretical view and practical steps for inquiring therapy failure: “no changing” and “deteriorating” after receiving therapy. Finding the roots of this failure improvement the theoretical basis in explanation of a psychological disorder and the related psychotherapeutic package. This paper stayed away from theoretical and practical ignorance

Keywords

References

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Clinical Psychology and Personality
Volume 19, Issue 2 - Serial Number 37
February 2022
Pages 173-182

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