Role of Eclecticism, Integration, and Common Factors in Psychotherapy Practice In India

Psychotherapies may work through techniques that are specific to each therapy or through factors that all therapies have in common. Proponents of the common factors model often point to meta-analyses of comparative outcome studies that show all therapies have comparable effects. However, not all meta-analyses support the common factors model; the included studies often have several methodological problems; and there are alternative explanations for finding comparable outcomes. To date, research on the working mechanisms and mediators of therapies has always been correlational, and in order to establish that a mediator is indeed a causal factor in the recovery process of a patient, studies must show a temporal relationship between the mediator and an outcome, a dose–response association, evidence that no third variable causes changes in the mediator and the outcome, supportive experimental research, and have a strong theoretical framework. Currently, no common or specific factor meets these criteria and can be considered an empirically validated working mechanism. Therefore, it is still unknown whether therapies work through common or specific factors, or both.

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Psychotherapy, placebos, and informed consent

Journal of Medical Ethics ◽

10.1136/medethics-2020-106453 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. medethics-2020-106453 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Garson Leder

Keyword(s):

Informed Consent ◽

Common Factors ◽

Sufficient Information ◽

Expectancy Effects ◽

Psychotherapeutic Interventions ◽

Consent To Treatment ◽

Informed Treatment ◽

The Common ◽

Common Factors In Psychotherapy

Several authors have recently argued that psychotherapy, as it is commonly practiced, is deceptive and undermines patients’ ability to give informed consent to treatment. This ‘deception’ claim is based on the findings that some, and possibly most, of the ameliorative effects in psychotherapeutic interventions are mediated by therapeutic common factors shared by successful treatments (eg, expectancy effects and therapist effects), rather than because of theory-specific techniques. These findings have led to claims that psychotherapy is, at least partly, likely a placebo, and that practitioners of psychotherapy have a duty to ‘go open’ to patients about the role of common factors in therapy (even if this risks negatively affecting the efficacy of treatment); to not ‘go open’ is supposed to unjustly restrict patients’ autonomy. This paper makes two related arguments against the ‘go open’ claim. (1) While therapies ought to provide patients with sufficient information to make informed treatment decisions, informed consent does not require that practitioners ‘go open’ about therapeutic common factors in psychotherapy, and (2) clarity about the mechanisms of change in psychotherapy shows us that the common-factors findings are consistent with, rather than undermining of, the truth of many theory-specific forms of psychotherapy; psychotherapy, as it is commonly practiced, is not deceptive and is not a placebo. The call to ‘go open’ should be resisted and may have serious detrimental effects on patients via the dissemination of a false view about how therapy works.

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Common Factors in Psychotherapy

Encyclopedia of Social Work ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.877 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James W. Drisko

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Social Services ◽

Research Policy ◽

Common Factors ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Conceptual Base ◽

History Of ◽

The Common ◽

Common Factors In Psychotherapy

This entry examines the common factors approach in social work and in related professions. The term “common factors” refers to a set of features that are shared across different specific models of psychotherapy and social services, but may not always be conceptualized as being curative influences. The common factors approach broadens the conceptual base of potentially curative variables for practice and research. The history of common factors, the research designs and statistical methods that have led to the approach’s elaboration, the approach’s empirical base, and its fit with social work’s person-in-environment perspective are each explored. The intersection of the common factors approach with the evidence-based practice movement is examined. The role of common factors in the psychotherapy integration movement is also discussed. The implications of the common factors approach for research, policy, and practice in social work are identified.

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The Music Therapist: Creative Arts Therapist and Contemporary Shaman

International Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Psychiatry: Theory Research & Clinical Practice ◽

10.35996/1234/2/arttherapyshaman ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph Moreno

Keyword(s):

Native American ◽

Creative Arts ◽

Indian Culture ◽

Music Therapist ◽

Psychotherapy Practice ◽

The Arts ◽

Contemporary Psychotherapy ◽

The World ◽

Traditional Healing Practices

While much of contemporary psychotherapy practice often focuses primarily on verbal exchange between therapists and clients, it is important to recognize that verbal expression is just one mode of expression, and not necessarily the deepest or most profound. Many clients in therapy may be more comfortable in expressing themselves in other ways through the modes of music, art, dance and psychodrama. The sources of the arts in healing extend back for many thousands of years and their modern expression through the creative arts therapies are now widely utilized in the mainstream of modern psychotherapy. Traditional healing practices are still widely practiced in many indigenous cultures around the world today and an appreciation of these practices can deeply enrich our understanding of the essential role of the arts in human expression. The aim of this paper is to consider the roots of the arts therapies and really all of psychotherapy, going as far back as pre-historic evidence, followed by an overview of living indigenous healing practices in such settings as Bushman culture in Namibia, Native American Indian culture, as well as in Kenya, Bali, Malaysia, Mongolia and more.

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Common Factors in Psychotherapy Outcome: Meta-Analytic Findings and Their Implications for Practice and Research

Families in Society The Journal of Contemporary Social Services ◽

10.1606/1044-3894.239 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 85 (1) ◽

pp. 81-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

James W. Drisko

Keyword(s):

Common Factors ◽

Psychotherapy Outcome ◽

Common Factors In Psychotherapy

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Vividness in Mathematics and Narrative

Circles Disturbed ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691149042.003.0007 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Timothy Gowers

Keyword(s):

Common Factors ◽

Mathematical Notion ◽

Figures Of Speech ◽

Working Through ◽

Bleak House ◽

Analogous Process ◽

Mathematical Texts

This chapter examines vividness in mathematics and narrative. It first gives two presentations of the mathematical notion of a group before explaining how to calculate highest common factors. It then considers the role of figures of speech, such as metaphor and irony, in mathematics and proceeds by citing a few passages from literature that highlight the use of concrete details to convey abstract thoughts; these include passages from Charles Dickens's Bleak House, Alan Hollinghurst's The Folding Star, and George Eliot's Middlemarch. The chapter argues that when working through a totally analogous process, exactly the same response can be created in certain mathematical texts.

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