Research digest

In keeping with the research theme for this issue, this Research Digest includes studies that focus on various stages of the research process. We begin with a number of studies exploring aspects of the research process itself (recruiting participants, developing measures and gaining ethical approval), before going on to some interesting examples of research that have investigated the therapeutic process itself – focusing on specific topics such as goal-setting, therapeutic impasses and the nature of therapeutic interaction itself. Studies such as these, which are rooted in the clinical setting, are often best investigated using qualitative methodologies, and the study by Georgaca and Avdi introduces a number of such approaches and demonstrates their relevance to psychotherapy research. The final set of studies included here deals with the question of outcome research, covering topics such as: the user's perspective on outcome; the placebo effect and the effectiveness of counselling and therapy in schools. We end, as the therapy research process always should, with a study specifically examining the impact of research on practice – in particular, how clinicians do (or do not) draw on the idea of ‘evidence-based practice’. Clinical research, as the studies selected for this Research Digest illustrate, deals with topics that emerge from the therapeutic setting itself, and ultimately stands or falls on its capacity to make discoveries that can in turn influence best practice.