Research Database

“What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, under which set of circumstances?”
– Gordon Paul (1967, author’s italics)

Empirically-Supported Treatments

Hypnosis & Psychotherapy

The Empirically Validated Therapies list was published by the American Psychological Association, Division 12, The Society of Clinical Psychology. The objective was to identify and promote psychological treatments that had evidence showing they were effective (i.e. were “empirically validated”).

The concept of evidence-based medicine rests on the premise that the quality of patient care is enhanced when practitioners use treatments with empirical support (Sackett, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000). In an effort to identify and promote empirically supported psychological treatments, Division 12 of the American Psychological Association (APA) first established a Task Force to examine this issue in 1993. The aim was to define empirically supported psychological procedures, along with examples of interventions that met those criteria… This Task Force, headed by Dianne Chambless, conducted a survey of doctoral and internship training programs in clinical psychology, focused on training and supervision in empirically supported treatments (ESTs).
– Empirically Supported Treatments: 10 years on, Woody, Weisz, McLean

The table of empirically-supported treatments below is based upon the ‘Update on Empirically Validated Therapies, II’ published by the Chambless task force (The Clinical Psychologist, June 4, 1997.) The main treatments supported in these areas are also broadly cognitive or behavioural in orientation.  Interventions have been grouped under different headings, and hypnotherapy interventions which more recent studies have explicitly proposed to meet the Chambless et al. criteria have been included.

If you want to train to be a hypnotherapist with an evidence-based approach you can find hypnotherapy training courses here.

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