The effort to identify empirically supported psychological treatments and its implications for clinical research, practice, and training - Commentaryon papers by Lester Luborsky and Hans H. Strupp

The current emphasis on identifying empirically supported treatments (ESTs) can distort psychotherapy research by emphasizing the investigation of tre atment in an atypical context, with atypical patients, in a contrived treat ment contract. An alternative to comparing the efficacy of different types of therapeutic techniques for treating focal symptoms is to seek to identif y the factors that facilitate therapeutic change in various types of therap eutic intervention. The emphasis on identifying ESTs also has the potential for distorting clinical training and limiting clinicians' ability to devel op the skills necessary for becoming effective therapists.