Psychotherapy is a personal process for many people. What works for me may not work for you.

But in other healthcare settings, there is research that has offered some guidance to people looking for the right therapist and the right treatment.

In this episode, we talk with psychologist and researcher, Bruce Wampold, about how to make psychotherapy effective and long-lasting.

I'm Audrey Hamilton, and this is Speaking of Psychology.

Thank you. This is Speaking of Psychology. Bruce Wampold is the Patricia L. Wollit professor of counseling psychology at the University

of Wisconsin-Madison.

He's also director

of the Research Institute at Modembad Psychiatric Center in Norway. He served on the American

Psychological Association's Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice in Psychology, and

his research on psychotherapy and methodology has been published in several APA journals, including

Psychological Bulletin,

American Psychologist, and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

He is author of the book The Great Psychotherapy Debate, which is a synthesis of empirical research

on psychotherapy and provides a model for understanding how psychotherapy works.

Welcome, Dr. Wampold.

Thank you.

Psychotherapy is tremendously effective for many people, but is it correct to say that psychotherapy works differently for different people? Well, there's many approaches to

psychotherapy, and many people come with different kinds of problems, different styles. So yes, it does work

differently for different people, but in the core, it's probably more similar than it is different.

So if I were a client seeking therapy, how would I know I'm getting the best treatment?

And like you said, I know we're all different and we all have our different issues,

but there's got to be a way to determine what's working for you.

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