Quantitative and qualitative research in psychotherapy

The chair and the members of the Research Committee jointly came to the idea that it would be very fruitful and useful to inform both the Board members and wider audience, including our colleagues belonging to the different modalities, on how important research is for psychotherapy to be recognized as an independent profession and to motivate them to contribute by engaging in research themselves.

This is the first in a series of envisaged workshops dedicated to the research in psychotherapy.

Dr. Omar Gelo, who is engaged at the University of Salento, Italy, as well as at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Austria, was invited to organize a workshop on the issue in focus and the event was greeted with great enthusiasm.

Dr. Omar Gelo’s workshop intended to provide clinicians and researchers with the basic knowledge regarding psychotherapy research. After a preliminary distinction between psychotherapy practice and psychotherapy science, the two main paradigms of empirical research within psychotherapy science were introduced and distinguished with reference to their philosophical foundations, methodological principles, and research methods. Thereafter, the main types of psychotherapy research – outcome, process, and process-outcome research – were described. Finally, different research designs both from a quantitative and/or qualitative perspective were described with reference to each of these single psychotherapy research types.

Handout: Omar Gelo: Psychotherapy between Practice and Research  (pdf, 2.200,2 KB)

The general impression was that most attendees were more than satisfied with Dr. Omar Gelo’s workshop and the discussion that followed. It seems that we (RC) succeeded in our attempts to start the intended promotion of research and psychotherapy as scientific discipline.

Dr. Omar Gelo SFU
Workshop Vienna, February 16, 2014

Chair of Research Committee (RC)
Prof. Dr. Snezana Milenkovic