Recent research suggests that we must take into account several findings when we design treatments for helping. Here are a handful of the many evidence-based findings which help us design therapies.
- On the average, 8-16 sessions will significantly help the 80% of clients who have acute and crisis problems. For chronic problems, 50-100 hours of therapy will significantly help another 10%. Only about 10% of patients need long-term help, but when they receive it, they cope and function more effectively. Those would be, for example, clients with psychiatric disabilities, couples with marital and addiction problems, clients with an accumulation of early life trauma and damaged early attachments, to name a few.
- For PTSD, traumatic and painful experiences, phobias and panic attacks, talking it through is important for improving behavior, but desensitization is the method for eliminating the emotional pain.
- For depressions and several other disorders, cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy prove to have the largest impact upon recovery, more so than any other treatment.
- For depressions, the client is at risk for relapse after recovery and may need a year or two of intermittent contact to ensure recovery.
- Medications can often assist by speeding recovery or supporting long-term success in psychotherapy.
- For ADHD, the combination of a well-designed medication regime and behavioral family therapy is most often effective.
- For addictions, confrontational methods are not as effective as enhancing motivation, challenging thinking patterns, and teaching clients how to refuse drugs (and alcohol) and to change with their previous patterns of using addictive chemicals. Research shows compulsive behaviors, such as pathological gambling, are almost indistinguishable in the brain to cocaine addiction and other compulsions. So the methods to help are similar.
- Also for addictions, long term follow up is essential to recovery.
- For long-term recovery from addiction, including the family or partner in counseling produces the highest percentage of clients who continue to remain abstinent.
- For clients with both addiction and mental illness, both sets of problems have to be treated simultaneously by therapists equally well-trained in both areas.
