CROPP Projects - Center for Research on Psychological Practice - Antioch University New England

CROPP Projects

Monadnock Family Services (MFS) Adolescent Brief Psychotherapy Training Project

This project was designed to study the effects of providing MFS therapists with timely client progress information and training in brief psychotherapy on the effectiveness and efficiency of their therapy with adolescent clients (age 12-18). Specifically, the objectives of the study are threefold: 1) to assess the effects of providing timely client progress information to therapists on client process and outcome; 2) to assess the effects of a brief therapy training program on client process and outcome; and 3) to assess therapists’ perceptions toward and application of a brief therapy training program. Providing timely client progress information has shown to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of psychotherapy for adult clients. This line of research has not, however, been extended to adolescent clients. Similarly, psychotherapy training is often offered in community settings, yet almost nothing is known about the effectiveness of such trainings. In fact, we are not aware of any such studies for therapists working primarily with child and adolescent clients in a naturalistic setting. Likewise, little is know about therapists’ perceptions toward and application of such trainings. Overall, the hope was to the responsiveness, efficiency, and effectiveness of adolescent therapy within a context of enhanced clinical feedback, in-depth training, and supplemental consultation. Click here for additional documents related to this project.

Keene State College

CROPP served as the program evaluator for a suicide prevention grant awarded to Keene State College Counseling Center. For those interested, the Keene State College Counseling website provides many helpful links to this project and the topic of suicide prevention. Click here for additional documents related to this project.

Rural Mental Health Project

CROPP has received a Planning, Convening, and Technical Assistance Grant ($42,123) from New Hampshire's Endowment for Health to develop a model program for integrating mental and behavioral health care into primary care settings in Sullivan County, a rural and medically underserved area of the state. CROPP is collaborating with several major health care stakeholders in the region, including New London Hospital, Valley Regional Hospital, and West Central Behavioral Health. The planning efforts are designed to mobilize the commitment of key stakeholders via a careful planning process that balances national best practice standards with local realities and constraints. The planning process should result in the development of a model integrative health care program, as well as funding to implement and test the model in Sullivan County. The bulk of the grant money was awarded to students to work directly with area stakeholders, conduct literature reviews on best practices, and conduct research on stakeholder readiness for integrative care. Click here for additional documents related to this project.

Psychological Services Center (PSC) Brief Psychotherapy Training Project

Since Fall, 2002, CROPP has conducted research on psychotherapy trainings provided to PSC trainees. The first iteration of the training focused on the exploration of Time-limited Dynamic Psychotherapy (TLDP). This project lasted for three years. Results of the research revealed several interesting findings: 1) the training improved the effectiveness of the therapy provided by participants, but only during the active training phase and 2) therapists’ emotions were significant predictors of the process of TLDP. See CROPP scholarship (link here) for more information on this research.

Based in part of the aforementioned research on the TLDP training, CROPP is currently revising it’s training in the PSC. Rather than focused on an explicit theoretically driven model, the training is now designed to encourage trainess to adapt what they already do and know to a brief format using the guiding principle of increasing therapeutic responsiveness in three domains: development and maintenance of a therapeutic focus, recognition and repair of alliance ruptures, and recognition and facilitation of client motivation. The training focuses on developing key trainee metacognitive skills via brief didactic training, demonstrations, active practice with timely feedback. We expect data collection to commence on this iteration of the PSC training starting in Fall 2007. Click here for additional documents related to this project.

Psychological Services Center (PSC) Clinical Feedback System

Since Fall 2002, CROPP, with the support of the PSC’s director (Victor Pantesco, EdD) and associate director (George Tremblay, PhD), helped initiate the incorporation of the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45), a widely utilized outcome measure, into the PSC’s daily clinical practice. The OQ-45 is now given to clients every other session to aid in tracking clinical progress.

The OQ-45 requires only 5-10 minutes to complete, yet yields helpful information about clients’ general level of distress. Using a system originally designed with the help of Greg Gard PsyD, one of our graduates (Greg worked with the original director of CROPP, Dr. Gene Pekarik), the OQ-45 is administered electronically using either a palm pilot or computer, thereby eliminating the need for manual entry or scoring of OQ-45 data. Best of all, this method of administration and scoring yields real-time, clinically pragmatic reports that summarizes the OQ-45 data and tracks each client’s progress over time, which has been shown to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of psychotherapy (e.g., Lambert, Whipple, Smart, & Vermeersch, 2001). Click here for additional documents related to this project.

Servicenet Time-limited Dynamic Psychotherapy Training Project

CROPP developed, implemented, and completed a 9-month training in Time-limited Dynamic Psychotherapy (Strupp & Binder, 1984) for interested clinicians at Servicenet, a community-based mental health center in Northhampton, MA. The trainings were co-facilitated by Jim Fauth, the director of CROPP, and Ben Skolnik, an ANE student. The training included six 3-hour workshops in which didactic information and demonstrations were presented and practice exercises were conducted. The training also included biweekly peer supervision sessions for 6 months supervised by Ben and Jim. Program evaluation revealed that the trainings were well received by clinicians but that contextual/organizational factors served as barriers to integrating the training fully into their work with clients. Click here for additional documents related to this project.