Psychotherapy: Theory, Practice and Research (PST 453)

                                           Sylabus 2012

Guarantee: PhDr. Roman Hytych, Ph.D. (autumn), e-mail: romhyt@gmail.com

 MUDr. Jan Roubal (spring), e-mail: jan.roubal.cz@gmail.com

Lectures:    Roman Hytych, Ph.D., MUDr. Jan Roubal, Mgr. Tomáš Řiháček, Ph.D.,   MUDr. David
Skorunka, Ph.D., prof. PhDr. Zbyněk Vybíral, Ph.D.,  Mgr. Leoš Zatloukal, Ph.D.


ECTS: 4 credits
The course is offered for foreign students of BA and MA programs. It consists of lectures listed
below. The final exam will take form of an essay (8 - 10 pages) on a chosen theme. 80% attendance
on lectures is compulsory. Lectures are conducted on Tuesdays from 12:00 till 13:30 in the room
P24. Courses start on October 2nd.

Dates of lectures: 2/10, 9/10, 16/10, 23/10, 30/10, 6/11, 13/11, 20/11, 27/11.

Note: There might be slight changes of the dates of lectures. In that case the students will be
informed by e-mail in advance.

Course lectures:

Zbyněk Vybíral:          Introduction to Theory, Practice and Research in Psychotherapy (2/10)

The lecture offers basic overview covering themes such psychotherapy as a profession, scientific
view in psychotherapy and variety of research designs. The focus on psychotherapy as both, the
science and “gift” includes several issues for questioning and discussion. Some biases are
mentioned as well.

Stiles, W. B., Shapiro, D. A., Elliot, R. (1986). „Are All Psychotherapies Equivalent“? American
Psychologist 41 (2), s.165-180;

O’Donohue, W., Cummings, N. A., Cummings, J. L. (2006). Clinical Strategies for Becoming a Master
Psychotherapist. Burlington, San Diego, London: Academic Press.

Leoš Zatloukal:           Solution-focused brief therapy: from problem-solving to solution-building
(9/10)

The lecture offers basic overview of solution-focused approach to psychotherapy. Principles of
solution-focused brief therapy will be discussed as well as some practical tools (techniques).

De Jong, P., Berg, I. K. Interviewing for solutions. Pacific Groove: Brooks/ Cole publ., 1998.

De Shazer, S., Dolan, Y., Korman, H., Trepper, T., McCollum, E., Berg, I. K. More than miracles:
The state of the art of solution-focused brief therapy. New York: The Haworth press, 2007.

David Skorunka:         Narrative and psychotherapy; from psychological to post psychological
perspective (16/10)

In this lecture, a metaphor of story and narrative is discussed with regard to both major
psychotherapeutic approaches and practice. A particular emphasis is given to narrative therapy
inspired by theory of social construction.

Angus, L., McLeod, J. The Handbook of Narrative and Psychotherapy, Sage, 2004

Payne, M. Narrative Therapy; An Introduction for Counsellors, Sage, 2006

Jakub Černý, Barbora Petránková:          Postmodern, dialogical and collaborative approaches –
interests and possibilities (23/10)

During the lecture we will introduce briefly what we mean while speaking about postmodern
collaborative approach in psychotherapy. We will discuss philosophical background of collaborative
approach and some of main “action-orienting sensitivities” for collaborative therapists.
Interactive space of the lecture is ought to be dedicated to discuss some of the promises,
possibilities and dangers of postmodern therapies.

Anderson, H. Goolishian, H. A. (1988), Human Systems as Linguistic Systems: Preliminary and
Evolving Ideas about the Implications for Clinical Theory. Family Process, 27: 371–393¨

Anderson, H. (2012). Collaborative Practice: A Way of Being "With". Psychotherapy and Politics
International, 10(2), 130-145.

Jan Roubal:                 Diagnostics and case formulation in psychotherapy (30/10)

Psychotherapeutic diagnostics (e.g. Bartuska et al., 2008) is a system of clues helping the
therapist to continuously orientate himself in the ongoing therapeutic process and to create a
useful map of a therapeutic situation. Case formulation is a method of organizing complex
information about the client, to extrapolate the individual treatment, to observe the changes and
to transform the theory and research into clinical practice (Eells, 2007).

Bartuska, H., Buchsbaumer, M., Mehta, G., Pawlowsky, G., Wieesnagrotzki, S. (Eds.). (2008)
Psychotherapeutic Diagnostics. New York, Wien: Springer.

Eells, T.D. (Ed.). (2007) Handbook of Psychotherapy Case Formulation. New York, London: The
Guilford Press.

Roman Hytych:           Mindfulness in contemporary psychotherapy: Clinical practice and research
findings (6/11)

Mindfulness is a core skill for life coping developed within Buddhist tradition. Recent years of
its psychotherapy application and scientific research have showed a huge range of its benefits for
psychotherapy clients as well as psychotherapists themselves.

Brown, K. W., Ryan, R. M., Creswell, J. D. (2007). Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundation and Evidence
for its Salutary Effects. Psychological Inquiry. 4, 211-237.

Tomáš Řiháček: Psychotherapy integration from the perspective of training and professional
development (13/11)

After a brief introduction to psychotherapy integration, the lecture will focus on various ways how
therapists develop to integrative perspective, analyzing their potential advantages and drawbacks.

Norcross, J. C., Halgin, R. P. (2005). Training in psychotherapy integration. In Norcross, J. C.,
Goldfried, M. R. (Eds.). Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration (2. vyd.). New York: Oxford
University Press, s. 439–458.

David Skorunka:         Contemporary family therapy and systemic practice (20/11)

The lecture introduces main assumptions and variety of practice in contemporary family therapy
including integrative approaches in this field. Major research findings regarding both outcome and
process of family therapy will be presented.

Dallos, R., Draper, R. Introduction to Family Therapy, Open University Press, 2010, 3^rd Edition

Carr, A. Family Therapy; Concepts, Process and Practice, Wiley and sons, 2009, 2^nd Edition

Zbyněk Vybíral:          How many psychotherapies we have (List of recognized treatments) (27/11)

We decided to create and henceforth manage a comprehensive list of widely (i.e. scientifically)
recognized contemporary psychotherapies (particularly in North America and Europe) that is aimed to
be as complete and valid as possible. The lecture is based on some papers from conferences.

Castonguay, L. G. (2006). Personal pathways in psychotherapy integration. Journal of Psychotherapy
Integration, 16 (1), s. 36–58.

Themes for final essay:

1.        Short outline of situation of psychotherapy in your country;
 2. Main psychotherapy approaches, personalities and training institutes in your country;
 3. Psychotherapy politics in your country (legal framework);
 4. What are the researchers focused on in the field of psychotherapy in your country?

Final essay submission deadline: 6th January, 2013


Essay evalutation criteria:

l  personal elaboration of the subject – predominance of own considerations, insights, opinions and
interpretations (work with literature, but do not just describe or cite it.)

l  sophistication, structuring, dictint line of thought or concept

l  content density and depth (of course depth is inversely proportional to the breadth of the topic
 – also an essay with a broad topic and less sophisticated sub-themes may be excellent; anyway we
rather recommend to elaborate a chosen sub-theme, in detail and in context.)

l  ability of a clear presentation of the main ideas of the essay and ability to participate in
critical discussion

l  keeping to the topic and length

l  formally correct working with terminology and literature, apparent distinguishing of own ideas
from those of others, citing according to APA standard