Trauma & Attachment Therapy

Research: CBT FAIL!

Huge study in Sweden finds that CBT often doesn't work on anxiety and depression and can make the problems much worse: 

REVOLUTION IN SWEDISH MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE: THE COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY MONOPOLY GIVES WAY

Please don't flame me, I'm just reporting the study.

Francine Shapiro in the New York Times on EMDR Research

Three years ago, while I was at the at the Olympus Women's Spa celebrating the publication of EMDR Solutions II, a woman in the same jacuzzi interrupted my conversation to attack me about my obvious misperceptions about EMDR. "Everybody knows it doesn't work . . . it's woo-woo-bullshit . . . and it's just exposure therapy, anyway . . . and there's no good research about it."  She was a researcher of cognitive and exposure therapies. When I tried, gently, to refute her, she spit on my friend and me, in her rage. Today, in the New York Times Health, Consults blog, Francine Shapiro has brilliantly refuted every point. Read the article here.  HAH!

Empirically-based Treatment?

Paul Matiuzzi's blog post nails the controversary about "empirically-based treatment"  for therapists: Read it here:  http://everydaypsychology.com/2011/09/yale-psychologist-calls-for-end-of.html 

Empirically-based research is a helpful guide to what works for some people some of the time. I absolutely follow the research in my field. But if something doesn't work for the client in front of you, you must try something else.

In about an hour, I'll be explaining to my editor why I can't, in good conscience, write the protocol-driven trauma treatment plan book she's asking for. Trauma clients are individuals with ideosynchratic biologies, temperaments, histories, and cultures. One treatment plan can't fit all. My last book was all about knowing as many therapies as possible, so that you can find what works for a client in front of you. 

For a scholarly (hilarious) article about the issue, check out this study on "Parachute use to prevent injury", that fails the empirical test for lack of a "no parachute use" control:  http://www.bmj.com/content/327/7429/1459.full