How broad is the gap between research and practice in early career psychotherapists? Evidence from the Spanish speaking countries

FARFALLINI, L.; ESPINOZA, M.; FERNÁNDEZ-ÁLVAREZ, J.; PENEDO, J.M.

Toronto

Congreso; SPR 48th International Annual Meeting; 2017

Society for Psychotherapy Research

Red para el desarrollo de jóvenes psicoterapeutas e investigadores (Network for the Development of Young Psychotherapists and Researchers) is a Practice Research Network conformed by early career clinicians and researchers. Within the framework of the second year since it was constituted, research projects have been started to be conducted. Following Practice Oriented Research (POR) principles, research designs are carried out by an active collaboration of researchers and clinicians.The present study aims to describe to what extent clinicians in Spanish speaking countries use research findings (Latin America and Spain). Based on a previously developed survey to gauge therapists? appraisals of their inclusion of research in their everyday practice (Fernández-Álvarez et al., 2016), the Retrospective Analysis of Psychotherapists´ Involvement in Deliberate Practice Scale is included (Chow and Miller, 2012). This scale aims to investigate the extent to which therapists invest time in the realization of deliberate practice, which has shown to be a variable present in the most effective therapists.A descriptive analysis of the data will be carried out, trying to elucidate the perception and the use of research by clinicians in Latin America and Spain. Comparisons of means will be conducted by analyzing the differences between young and experienced therapists. In addition, the means of the scores of the samples of the different countries will be compared, aiming to identify certain characteristics according to the diverse cultural frameworks.The data of the present study will be discussed according to its theoretical implications for the conducting of POR studies within groups such as RED de jóvenes.