Mental health professionals like to think we do effective work with clients. We like to think we are badasses for clients! By and large, research shows that evidence-based therapy works overall! (There is some variation by type of therapy and by therapist). But even when therapy works well, how much do clients really remember and how many new habits do they retain? How do therapists make therapy more effective?
Previous research finds that clients only retain about 30% of information gained from therapy sessions and medical care. This negatively impacts how clients form new, more adaptive habits. Now this may be discouraging to many. Even if therapy shows short-term benefits, there’s no guarantee those gains will stick. A lot of client gains appear to get lost over time.
Research at U. Cal Berkeley has begun to tackle this problem, however. It appears there may be ways to help clients retain a lot more of this information going forward. The research attempts to build new strategies aimed at increasing the chances that clients retain 1) information and 2) the habits learned in therapy- all without adding additional therapy sessions!
The first method to make therapy more effective draws from cognition and memory research to help develop distinction strategies to enhance client memory processes. For example, the coding -> storage -> retrieval process that many mental health difficulties already affect. Some memory strategies tested include categorizing information, repetition for key therapy points, and praising client recall (to name a few; see linked study above for more).
To increase formation of new habits learned in therapy, the research first gave a heavy dose of eduction on what made those habits helpful. It then drew on behavior research to use a similar approach to memory improvement. It drew on repetition, cues associated with habits, efforts to make those habits more automatic, and methods for reinforcement of those habits.
Memory enhancement and habit formation methods show efficacy on their own in previous research. So that’s exciting for any who are a little disheartened to learn that the helping efforts that therapists initiate do not always “stick”. There is a healthy skepticism to be had for now, however, because the methods proposed by the Berkeley researchers still need more testing.
That is, it is promising when research finds individual methods are effective (e.g., repetition that leads to better memory recall). But that does not mean that those methods will work when combined and delivered together in a therapy context. It could! But more research like randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is needed to make therapy more effective.
It’s also very encouraging that researchers are on the task of investigating explicit strategies to make our work better retained! Helping clients maintain gains and effective behaviors that they learn throughout therapy is part of what it’s all about. Even better when these methods don’t add extra cost or time for client or therapist.
