HGI Practice Research Network

The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) is 1 of the collaborating centres funded by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to produce clinical guidelines. Recently, Bill Andrews interviewed Steve Pilling, Co-Director of NCCMH on behalf of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). The published article is available here.

Steve Pilling outlined 4 key steps to research of a new psychological therapy or an existing therapy without an evidence base:

1. Collect simple pre-post data on a relatively small sample.

2. Test in controlled trials, preferably randomized clinical trials (RCT), starting with a 'treatment as usual' comparison.

3. Test against the gold standard evidence based treatment.

4. Test how does the treatment stand up in the real world through rigorous evaluation gathering robust practice based evidence data.

The full transcript of the Steve Pilling interview is available here.

The HGIPRN has completed step 1 satisfactorily. Step 4 is being addressed on an ongoing basis through the gathering of data from HG therapists in practice and we actively encourage all HGI members to continue to do so. The Human Givens Approach draws on the same evidence base used in the development of NICE guidelines in order to make selection of the various therapeutic tools, techniques and treatments that are included in its training courses. A mapping exercise is in process to link these treatments to the existing evidence base as well as drawing on other sources of empirical evidence. Meanwhile, Steps 2 and 3 are also being explored. A 'Future Strategy' document has been published by the HGIPRN and is available to members of the HGI on the protected page of this website.

History and development of CBT

At the Evolution of Psychotherapy conference in Anaheim in December 2009 Arron Beck was interviewed by his daughter Judith in front of 8000 attendees. He covered the early development of cognitive therapy as well as answering questions about current developments. The interview provides us with useful insights into how CBT has evolved and continues to evolve and about the eclectic nature of therapy to become more and more inclusive, bringing, as Beck says, the therapy to the client as opposed to the client to the therapy.

The full transcript is available here.