Toward the development of a clinically useful approach to psychotherapy research

The controversial move toward the development of a consensus on evidence-ba sed or empirically supported therapies may be seen as an international cris is facing psychotherapists. Researchers long have complained that practicin g therapists ail too often continue to guide what they do therapeutically o n the basis of their clinical experience and not the available research fin dings. Practicing therapists long have complained that therapy research bea rs only a remote resemblance to what goes on in actual clinical practice an d that research reports are written for other researchers, not for clinicia ns. In the hope of turning our current crisis into an opportunity, this pan el involved a dialogue that was designed to bridge this clinical-research g ap. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.