Despite psychotherapy’s low-tech design – essentially a conversation, the raw material of psychotherapy data is daunting - often hours of unstructured, messy, emotional, free flowing dialogue. How do we begin to understand how this process leads to change? Are there particular treatments that are more effective than others? Or are therapists themselves the crucial ingredient? What things to do therapists do to mess up the process? What specific factors tell us why some therapists and/or treatments are better than others?
Our group's primary interests include understanding how change happens in psychotherapy with a focus on the so-called 'common factors' - a collection of processes that may explain the effects of different psychotherapies (e.g., Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Therapy, Behavioral Therapy). However, we have a variety of active projects related to the treatment of PTSD, substance abuse, client dropout “no shows”, the therapeutic relationship, and cultural competence.
Ongoing Projects
Current Funding
NIH/NIDA R34 DA034860
Project Title: Development and feasibility of computer based fidelity monitoring for MI
Role: PI (D. Atkins, PhD; Co-PI)
Total Costs $742,624.00; 7/1/13 – 6/30/16
NIH/NIAAA R01 AA018673
Project Title: Automating Behavioral Coding via Text-mining and Speech Signal Processing
Role: Co-Investigator (D. Atkins & M. Steyvers (MPI))
Total Costs: $2,849,613.00; 9/1/10 – 8/31/15
Non-tenured Faculty Research Grant, College of Education, University of Utah
Project Title: Alone in the Crowd: The Evaluation of Counselor Expertise.
Role: PI
Total Costs: $3,375.00; 9/1/14-8/31/15
Our group's primary interests include understanding how change happens in psychotherapy with a focus on the so-called 'common factors' - a collection of processes that may explain the effects of different psychotherapies (e.g., Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Therapy, Behavioral Therapy). However, we have a variety of active projects related to the treatment of PTSD, substance abuse, client dropout “no shows”, the therapeutic relationship, and cultural competence.
Ongoing Projects
- Signal processing and linguistic models of provider behavior.
- Utilization, refining the definition of dropout in psychotherapy.
- Evaluation of racial/ethnic minority disparities in psychotherapy outcomes across providers.
Current Funding
NIH/NIDA R34 DA034860
Project Title: Development and feasibility of computer based fidelity monitoring for MI
Role: PI (D. Atkins, PhD; Co-PI)
Total Costs $742,624.00; 7/1/13 – 6/30/16
NIH/NIAAA R01 AA018673
Project Title: Automating Behavioral Coding via Text-mining and Speech Signal Processing
Role: Co-Investigator (D. Atkins & M. Steyvers (MPI))
Total Costs: $2,849,613.00; 9/1/10 – 8/31/15
Non-tenured Faculty Research Grant, College of Education, University of Utah
Project Title: Alone in the Crowd: The Evaluation of Counselor Expertise.
Role: PI
Total Costs: $3,375.00; 9/1/14-8/31/15