EMDR FORUM ARCHIVE, 2000
Empirically Supported Treatments
Anonymous · 01/20/03 at 10:21 PM ET
Shawn: I realize the following is a bit of a tangent from the ongoing thread, but having reviewed all your posts and the overwhelming evidence and reasoning contained therein, I doubt the EMDR true believers will ever be swayed (however, I admire Sandra’s tolerance for such conflicting POVs on her forum). Clearly, you posses the ability to consider the data and get to the essence of what exactly the evidence is and what it points to. Anyway, assuming Sandra tolerates my tangent, any comments on the following, if your so inclined, would be appreciated: Stanley B. Messer, PhD, wrote in “Empirically Supported Treatments: Cautionary Notes,” Medscape General Medicine 4(4), 2002: "One might think from the way in which ESTs [empirically supported treatments, which are largely behavioral or cognitive-behavioral] are being promulgated...that their superiority to other familiar forms of treatment has been proven. Here are some relevant facts: study after study, meta-analysis after meta-analysis, and even meta-analyses of meta-analyses (called mega-analyses) have repeatedly produced the same result: there are very few differences among bona fide therapies. By bona fide, I mean therapies that are guided by a coherent theoretical structure, have been widely practiced for a long time, and have a research foundation, even if this foundation does not include the randomized control trials or single-case design sanctioned by the Task Force on ESTs of the American Psychological Association's Division of Clinical Psychology. Examples are the psychodynamic, client or person-centered, and family or marital therapies." Messer also writes: “Common factors and therapist variability far outweigh specific ingredients [i.e., the specific techniques or ingredients characteristic of a treatment] in accounting for the benefits of psychotherapy. The proportion of variance contributed by common factors such as placebo effects, working alliance, therapist allegiance and competence are much greater than the variance stemming from specific ingredients or effects.” If I’m reading this right, the essential elements in effective psychotherapy boils down to therapeutic alliance and the therapist and client believing it’s going to work.
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