Improving personal and organizational performance without constant feedback is like trying to pin the tail on the donkey when we're blindfolded. Only through knowing where we are, can we change where we are going.-Jim Clemmer, Don't Wait to See the Blood Evidence-based treatment (EBT) is not just a fashionable phrase to describe empirically supported approaches foi specific childhood disoidets; it is fast becoming a piactice mandate by market forces and a centerpiece of policy recommendations (Bickman, 2005;. At the same time, EBT has spurred some ofthe most spirited debates in the history of mental health (Norcross, Beutler, & Levant, 2006). For example, EBT proponents aigue "fot compelling evidence that some techniques ate clearly the treatment of choice fot the vaiious problems that children and adolescents biing to tieatment" (Kazdin, 2004, p. 580). Contiast that with Millei, Wampold, and Vathely's (2008) conclusion that "cunent attempts aimed at identifying and codifying a list of 'best practices' foi the treatment of children and adolescents can at best viewed as premature and at woist misleading" (p. 12). It is no wondet that many mental health professionals ate seeking guidance on whether and how to incorporate EBTs into ptactice.
Countertransference is an important aspect of the therapeutic relationship that exists in therapies of all theoretical orientations, and depending on how it is managed, it can either help or hinder treatment. Management of countertransference has been measured almost exclusively with the Countertransference Factors Inventory (Van Wagoner, Gelso, Hayes, & Diemer, 1991) and its variations, all of which focus on 5 therapist qualities theorized to facilitate management: self-insight, conceptualizing ability, empathy, self-integration, and anxiety management. Existing versions of the Countertransference Factors Inventory, however, possess certain psychometric limitations that appear to constrain how well they assess actual management of countertransference during a therapy session. We thus sought to develop a new measure that addressed these limitations and that captured the 5 therapist qualities as constituents (rather than correlates) of countertransference management that manifest in the treatment hour. The development and initial validation of the resulting 22-item Countertransference Management Scale (CMS) is described here. Exploratory factor analysis of ratings of 286 therapy supervisors of current supervisees indicated that the 5 constituents of countertransference management could be grouped into 2 correlated factors: "Understanding Self and Client" and "Self-Integration and Regulation." Evidence of convergent and criterion-related validity was supported by CMS total and subscale scores correlating as expected with measures of theoretically relevant constructs, namely, therapist countertransference behavior, theoretical framework, self-esteem, observing ego, empathic understanding, and tolerance of anxiety. Results also supported the internal consistency of the CMS and its subscales. Research, clinical, and training implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
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