The group consists of established researchers and graduate (Masters and Doctoral) students who conduct research into the variables that are related to the process and outcome of psychotherapy. Our data are generated during psychotherapy sessions using quantitative and qualitative measures of therapeutic process completed by psychotherapists, clients/patients, and trained external observers or raters who observe and analyze the treatments.

Most of our research examines the natural unfolding of psychotherapeutic treatments as delivered by either experienced clinicians or clinicians in training, depending on the study. As such, we attempt to determine and understand how the therapist and patient have an effect on one another, what psychotherapists do in therapy, why they do it at any given point in time, and what effect that has on the patient, and ultimately on outcome. Variables that we have examined include for example:

• therapist interventions and techniques,
• the therapeutic alliance,
• emotional expression and experiencing,
• diverse indices of psychopathology, general functioning, satisfaction, and psychological functioning, such as diagnoses, symptoms, cognitive processing, defensive functioning, coping, interpersonal functioning and interpersonal patterns, to name but a few, and
• treatment outcome.

Researchers in the MPPRG are from diverse theoretical schools and backgrounds. As such, our research examines different forms and models of psychotherapy, including psychodynamic psychotherapies, cognitive behavioral therapies, experiential therapies, and psychoanalysis.

The MPPRG collaborates with researchers and clinicians in diverse fields and from various universities and hospitals, both locally and internationally. If you have questions about our research, please do not hesitate to contact us.