ActionResearch

"Empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are interventions that have been found to be efficacious for one or more psychological conditions, like major depression, panic disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Prior to the 1990s, there were no specific guidelines for either practitioners or mental health consumers regarding which treatments to select for which conditions. " "Because ESTs are manualized, they necessarily constrain clinical creativity. To some extent, this criticism is based on a caricature of manualized therapies. Treatment manuals do not necessarily mandate fixed responses to patients' verbal behaviors in therapy; instead, most manuals provide flexible guidelines for how to proceed at different stages of treatment. Moreover, increasing numbers of treatment manuals afford therapists considerable leeway to respond flexibly to differing patient trajectories within treatment. "

"Jenny W. Rudolph, PhD, VA Boston Healthcare System"