Today in Psychopathology class we will be studying the anxiety disorders. In preparing for the class, I happened on an 2001 article by Huppert, Bufka, Barlow, Gorman, Shear, & Woods in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (v. 69, pp747-755). FYI, David Barlow is a well-known anxiety researcher in the Boston area.
These authors researched how various therapist characteristics influence outcome in CBT for anxiety disorders. While CBT has been found to be effective in treating anxiety, does it matter much what therapist you get?
What therapist characteristics were not found to be all that meaningful to outcome? Gender, age, and theoretical orientation did not seem to make any difference. The fact that theoretical orientation didn’t make much difference is quite interesting. This suggests that expertise in CBT may not matter as much as one might think. Anybody with a manual and a willingness to follow it can do it well enough–maybe.
So what counselor characteristics do increase successful outcome for anxiety treatment? Experience. The more experienced therapists had clients who had less anxiety after treatment. Experience (number of years as a therapist) matters quite a bit. The authors did not find that experienced therapists were more apt to follow the treatment protocol as there were no differences between experienced and inexperienced therapists as far how they did in following the protocol.
So, what does experience mean? We’re not really sure but it probably has something to do with therapist flexibility while continuing to adhere to the treatment protocol. Those who followed the protocol but were more rigid may have communicated that rigidity to their patients and missed key interpersonal processes. This study didn’t explore this issue but I surmise that is part of the issue.
One funny finding was that more experienced therapists suffered the same drop-out rate as did the more inexperienced therapists. And yet, those who stayed in treatment had much lower anxiety when they were seen by the experienced therapists. So, just because you go to an experienced therapist, don’t assume that everything will go well. No, you have to want to be there and be willing to do the hard work. Also, you just may not click with the counselor.
Most of us counselors want to be skilled and have cool techniques. But once again we find that relationships matter more than technique.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 