the Santa Barbara County Psychological Association

November 20, 2009 at Marmalade Cafe in Santa Barbara.

Our Board bid farewell to David Baldwin, Ph.D. and his lovely wife Diana at they depart for big opportunities back east.

Photos by Fred Morguelan

Dear Colleague,

I am delighted to invite you to participate in an innovative research project that we are beginning in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The study will investigate methods for improving psychotherapy when the therapeutic work has become challenging, stalled, or reached an impasse. We invite you to review your caseload and reflect on those cases that have become most difficult or problematic. If you and your client choose to participate you will be assigned to one of two experimental conditions, both designed to enhance or repair the therapeutic work.

What will be required?

If we believe that you and your client are appropriate for the study we will ask you to complete several questionnaires of alliance, therapeutic process, therapist activity, session evaluation, and satisfaction prior to and after our intervention. Our intervention methods will consist of a brief consultation and feedback with you and your client or a brief psychological assessment of your client and a joint feedback session. In both cases, we would be asking for a maximum of three hours of your time across three months.

Benefits

If you are selected for inclusion in this study you will receive a token $25 and your client will receive $100 plus reimbursement for parking. More importantly, we believe that both of these interventions will improve the psychotherapy work for you and your client. Furthermore, we hope that this research can be used to inform the work of other clinicians who may also face the challenge of a difficult psychotherapy.

For further information

Please call Kaila Norman, Graduate Research Assistant, at (805) 776-3722 or email her at pacucsb@gmail.com.

This study is funded by a grant from the Personality Assessment Foundation to Dr. Steven Smith and has been approved by the Human Subjects Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steven R. Smith

Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, PSY 20096

Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology

University of California, Santa Barbara

Sponsored by SB- CAMFT, SB-LCSW & SB-Psychological Association.

Held at Family Therapy Institute at 111 East Arrellaga St, Santa Barbara, CA.

Special Thanks to Debra Manchester and Don Mac Mannis for hosting us.

Photos by Fred Morguelan

Legal and Ethical Risks and Risk Management in Professional Psychology Practice
Sequence II: Risk Management in Specific High Risk Areas
Presenter: Jeffrey N. Younggren, Ph.D., ABPP

Sponsored by: APA Insurance Trust, California Psychological Association, and the Santa Barbara County Psychological Association

Saturday, October 3, 2009
8:00 am to 4:00pm

Photos courtesy of Fred Morguelan