Psychotherapy: Theory, Practice and Research (PST 453)

                                           Sylabus 2015

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

Lectures:

Mgr. Michal Čevelíček, Mgr, Martin Hofman, PhDr. Roman Hytych, Ph.D., Mgr. Lenka Maruniaková,
Mgr. Barbora Petránková,  Mgr. Tomáš Řiháček, Ph.D., MUDr. David Skorunka, Ph.D., Mgr. Monika
Skutková, Virpi-Liisa Kykyri, Ph.D., prof. PhDr. Zbyněk Vybíral, 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 Mondays from 13:30 till 15:00 in the room
M117.

Courses start on October 5th.

Dates of lectures:

5/10, 12/10, 19/10, 26/10, 2/11, 9/11, 16/11, 23/11, 30/11, 7/12, 14/12.

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:

Roman Hytych:          Mindfulness in contemporary psychotherapy: Clinical practice and research
findings (5/10)

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.

Martin Hofman, Lenka Maruniaková: Biosynthesis: A psychotherapy approach which includes the wisdom
of our somatic body (12/10)

Biosynthesis is a holistic form of body psychotherapy which focuses on integration of three levels:
cognitive, emotional and somatic (movement). In the lecture students will be presented some basic
theories which biosynthesis is built on, and after that, students will have a chance to try some
practical exercises and bodywork.

Boadella, D. (1987): Lifestreams: An Introduction to Biosynthesis. Routledge Kegan & Paul.

Zbyněk Vybíral:         Introduction to Theory, Practice and Research in Psychotherapy (19/10)

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.

David Skorunka:        Narrative and psychotherapy; from psychological to post psychological
perspective (26/10)

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

Virpi-Liisa Kykyri and  Anu Karvonen:         Relational embodied synchrony in couple therapy
(2/11)

Human interaction has been extensively studied in language and behavior, but only recently
researchers have started to recognize the crucial role of physiological attunement in social
interaction and therapy. Physiological synchrony has hardly been studied during actual therapy or
between more than two participants. In Relational Mind project, we use a multi-layered design to
study how participants attune to each other during therapy in: a) conversation and prosody, b) body
movements c) visible emotional expressions and d) autonomic nervous system reactions. By using
Stimulated Recall Interviews we also try to capture the inner dialogue of participants, i.e. what
they thought or felt during certain moments in therapy. During the lecture we will present the
design of the project, as well as some of our first results.

Tomáš Řiháček: Psychotherapy integration from the perspective of training and professional
development (9/11)

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.

Michal Čevelíček:         Case formulation as a process and product of therapists' thinking about
their clients (16/11)

Broadly defined, psychotherapy case formulation captures the ways in which therapists think about
their clients (cases). Specifically, it is a process and a product of capturing and structuring
complex information, developing hypotheses about the nature of issues at hand, and forming plans to
resolve these issues. First, we will focus on specifics of “therapeutic thinking”. Is thinking of
therapists any different from “common” thinking? What do therapists learn to think as therapists?
Second, we will take a look at some specific methods of case formulation (both integrative and
orientation-specific), which therapists' may use to shape their thinking.

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

Ingram, B. L. (2010). Clinical case formulations: Matching the integrative treatment plan to the
client. New Jersey, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Zbyněk Vybíral:         How many psychotherapies we have (List of recognized treatments) (23/11)

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.


David Skorunka:        Contemporary family therapy and systemic practice (30/11)

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

Monika Skutková:      Helpful and hindering events in psychotherapy (7/12)

The lecture will focus on research of helpful and hindering events in psychotherapy – its history,
way of analysis of significant events, overview of the most important established moments and
summary of significant studies on this topic. Understanding of helpful and hindering events can be
useful particularly for therapists in practice for comprehension of suitable way of therapy.

Timulák, L. (2010). Significant events in psychotherapy: An update of research findings. Psychology
and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practise, 83, s. 421-447.

Barbora Petránková: Postmodern, dialogical and collaborative approaches in psychotherapy (14/12)

What do the terms postmodern, dialogical and collaborative mean in psychotherapy?

How does it look like, when we stay in not knowing position? And why would we do it?

After a basic theoretical introduction and orientation in the philosophical context, we would like
to discuss some of the promises, possibilities and challenges of collaborative and dialogical
practices in psychotherapy and related fields.

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.

Rober, P. (2005). The therapist`s self in dialogical family therapy. Some ideas not.knowing, inner
conversation. Family Process, 44: 477–495

Themes for final essay (choose one of them):

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: 17th December, 2015


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

l  see also Bad and Good example of final essay in Information system