Welcome to the Psychotherapy Practice Research Network

Practice-based psychotherapy research to improve the well being of our community

The Psychotherapy Practice Research Network (PPRNet) is a partnership of inter-professional psychotherapy clinicians, researchers, educators, and knowledge users who engage in practice-based psychotherapy research. Such collaborations result in psychotherapy research that is informed by the combined expertise of practicing clinicians and researchers. Our goal is to advance practice-based research that translates into excellence in psychotherapy to improve the wellbeing of our community. The PPRNet is committed to sustaining our community's wellbeing by training the next generation of clinicians and researchers in collaborative practice-based psychotherapy research.

1. Psychotherapy practice and research improves the wellbeing, quality of life, and mental health of our community.
2. Psychotherapy clinicians have a wealth of knowledge about how psychotherapy works, and what works for their clients that can inform psychotherapy research.
3. Psychotherapy research is an important method to examine, systematically describe, and predict what works about psychotherapy.
4. Collaborations between clinicians and researchers in practice-based research are key to conducting clinically meaningful psychotherapy research.
5. Collaborative practice-based research will improve translation of psychotherapy research into practice.
6. Active engagement in practice-based research by clinical and research trainees will foster continued collaborations to advance psychotherapy.

January 2024 - Dr. G. Tasca, Evidence-based practice related to maintaining quality therapeutic alliance, identifying ruptures, and managing repairs.

February 2024 - Dr. G. Tasca, What does psychotherapy say about practice? It may not be what you think.

April 2024 - Dr. P. Ravitz, Mentalizing to Enhance Psychotherapy Care.

The PPRNet hosted a Café Scientifique entitled "Analyze This: Psychotherapy in the 21st Century" on Monday, April 14th, 2014 at The Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre (home of the Great Canadian Theatre Company). Our Café featured 3 expert panelists: Dr. John Hunsley, Dr. Louise Balfour, and Christine Flammer, Executive Director of Hopewell Eating Disorder Support Centre. We had a terrific turn out to this event, with over 80 participants from the general public and professional community. Dr. John Hunsley spoke about the efficacy of psychotherapy, Dr. Louise Balfour spoke about what happens during psychotherapy, and Christine Flammer spoke about patients’ and families’ perspectives.

On November 17^th, 2012 the PPRNet was launched with the inaugural Practice-Based Research Priority Setting Conference at the Hilton Garden Inn in Ottawa, Canada. During this conference, participants comprised of psychotherapy clinicians, educators, and researchers, listened to talks about current trends in psychotherapy research, and about practice-based research in psychotherapy. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Louis Castonguay, delivered an animated talk entitled, "Repairing Alliance Ruptures Between Research and Practice: Contributions Of Practice Research Networks toward Understanding and Improving Psychotherapy." Please see his bio below. Throughout the day, participants also collaborated with their colleagues in small working groups designed to generate research priorities that are important to clinicians and their clients.

Read more about PPRNet's qualitative analysis of 10 clinician focus groups (pdf, 480 KB)

Featured Speakers:

Dr. Castonguay is a Professor at the Department of Psychology at Penn State University. With more than 120 publications (including four co-edited books), his scholarly work and research focus on different aspects of the process of change and training, especially within the context of integration of psychotherapy. He is also involved in the investigation of the efficacy of new integrative treatments for generalized anxiety disorder and depression, and the development of Practice Research Networks aimed at facilitating the collaboration between clinicians and researchers. He has received several recognitions from the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Psychotherapy: including the Distinguished Psychologist Award for his life time contributions to the field of psychotherapy. He also served as President of the North American Society for Psychotherapy Research, as well as the International Society for Psychotherapy Research.

Louis G. Castonguay,
YouTube video Repairing Alliance Rupture Between Research and Practice

John Ogrodniczuk
YouTube video Efficacy and Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

John Hunsley
YouTube video Psychotherapy Relationship Factors

Linda Huehn
YouTube video Therapist Factors

Kylie Francis
YouTube video Client Factors

Giorgio Tasca
YouTube video What is the PPRNet?

1. The PPRNet will help to keep you on top of the state of the art in practice-relevant psychotherapy research. By doing so you will know that you are providing the best possible care to your clients.
2. Being involved in designing and implementing psychotherapy research means that you will have a direct influence on what gets researched, including issues that are relevant to your practice and clients.
3. Clinicians who participate in such networks have:
   • benefitted from knowing the best practices that were supported by an evidence base
   • greater confidence in aspects of their practices
   • a sense of community and collegiality with like-minded psychotherapists and psychotherapy researchers
   • experienced the excitement that comes with discovering new things through participating in practice-based research
   • the satisfaction of being involved in an intellectually challenging and stimulating process
4. Depending on your skills and interests, you may derive a sense of accomplishment by co-authoring manuscripts on the research that you helped to develop and carry out.

Clients must provide informed consent in order to participate in research, and a client's access to treatment will not be affected by their choice to participate or not participate. Clients will be free to discontinue from a study at any time. Depending on what is being studied, clients may be asked to fill out questionnaires at various points during and after their psychotherapy. Our experience with clinical research is that:

1. some clients agree to participate especially if they feel they may benefit (i.e. their therapist will learn more about them), and
2. many clients feel good about contributing to scientific knowledge, it gives them a sense of altruism, and it allows them to attach some meaning to their suffering.

Partly yes, but mostly no. The PPRNet is made up of clinicians, researchers, and educators. The vast majority of members practise psychotherapy, and some are psychotherapy researchers. Developing a network and doing practice-based research is not the most efficient way to get an academic publication. The PPRNet and its collaborators are very passionate about psychotherapy and practice-based research. We will put in the time and effort to develop a Canada-wide practice-research network because we believe that clients will benefit most from psychotherapy that is informed by relevant research that is driven by the clinicians who practise psychotherapy.

The goals of the PPRNet are to improve the wellbeing (i.e. health and mental health) of our community by:

1. Advancing knowledge translation of psychotherapy research to improve both research and clinical practice; and
2. Engaging in practice-based psychotherapy research to increase the evidence base that informs best practices in psychotherapy.

Being involved with the PPRNet can take several different forms. You can identify yourself as a friend, a member, or as one of our stakeholders.

1. As a friend of the PPRNet you are indicating that you are interested in receiving email alerts about PPRNet news, continuing education information, and practice-relevant research updates.
2. As a member, you are indicating that you also want to participate in practice-based psychotherapy research. For example, a member might:
   • help to develop and design practice-relevant studies
   • participate in collecting data in their practice for such studies
   • collaborate in writing up research results.
3. A stakeholder is a professional, funding, community, or client organization that supports the PPRNet by making its membership aware of PPRNet activities, by representing their membership's views to the PPRNet, and by providing input into PPRNet activities and research plans.

Knowledge translation (KT) for the PPRNet means two things.

1. KT refers to clinicians informing psychotherapy research by:
   • having direct input into research questions, designs, and methods
   • participating in and conducting practice-based research in their clinical practices
2. KT also refers to synthesizing current practice-relevant psychotherapy research knowledge and making these syntheses available to clinicians so that their clinical practice is informed by the most relevant and up to date evidence.

Practice-based research is research that takes place in clinical practices, asks practical questions, and takes into account the complexities of clients that are treated by many clinicians. Some have criticized psychotherapy trials conducted in health sciences centres as being too academic, too detached from real world settings, and not representative of patients treated in the community. Practice-based research conducted in community settings will engage clinicians to ask their own interesting questions, and may result in findings that are more directly applicable. Such studies will be more easily translated into everyday clinical practice.

The PPRNet is a collaboration among a multidisciplinary group of psychotherapy clinicians, researchers, educators, and stakeholders who want to:

• advance knowledge translation of psychotherapy research; and
• conduct practice-based psychotherapy research.

The main cost will be your time, but this partly depends on your level of involvement.

1. At a minimum, you would be spending some time reading syntheses of the latest research that is relevant to your practice, and/or attending continuing education activities related to the state of the art in psychotherapy research and practice. However, any conscientious clinician will do this anyway.
2. If you choose to be involved in practice-based research within your clinical practice, then this might involve some adjustments to your procedures to accommodate data collection, for example. However, patient-focused data that is collected in your practice may be of great interest to you, and may be useful and relevant to your clients. We understand that your time is limited and highly prized by you. Our goal will be to work with you to reduce this cost as much as possible, while at the same time increasing the benefits of participating in the PPRNet to you and your clients.

The PPRNet is run by Dr. Giorgio Tasca and is composed of clinicians, researchers, and educators from across Canada and beyond. Currently, the PPRNet is supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa as well as by donations. The PPRNet was generously funded by the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and by the Department of Psychiatry at The Ottawa Hospital. The first PPRNet conference and current research project was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).