The Society for Psychotherapy Research is an international, multidisciplinary scientific association devoted to research on psychotherapy. SPR encourages the development of research on psychotherapy. It aims to support and enhance both the empirical basis and applied value of research on psychotherapy.

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Psychotherapy research is stimulated, for instance, by providing small research grants for pilot studies which, in turn, enable researchers to later obtain larger grant funding. The Society for Psychotherapy Research also plays an important role in providing opportunities to psychotherapy researchers for interaction and dialogue.

 

A final and additionally important goal of SPR is knowledge transfer. SPR plays a central role in communicating our community’s research efforts and products, and ensures the dissemination of research findings through various channels. SPR communicates to practicing psychotherapists in clinical practice through annual research meetings held worldwide, through the society’s professional journal Psychotherapy Research, through online seminars (webinars), as well as through online forum discussion boards. The ultimate goal held by SPR is, through the research endeavors of her members, to enhance the empirical basis of the effective practice of psychotherapy worldwide.

 

Chapters and regional groups. The society is comprised of four regional groups: European, North American, Latin American and the United Kingdom. There are also currently two regional groups: Australian and Italian. In response to the growing interest in psychotherapy research in Israel, and the success of the 2016 international conference in Jerusalem, a number of Israeli psychotherapy researchers and SPR members initiated the formation of the Israeli Regional Group of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (IL-SPR Group). The group will be under the auspices of the European Chapter and was granted approval in January, 2018.

Israeli Regional Group of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (IL-SPR Group).

 

Goals and activities

• To provide a home and organizational affiliation for all Israeli psychotherapy researchers. Such researchers include students and faculty in academia; researchers in hospitals and community mental health clinics; individuals conducting research in their private practice 

• To provide on-line and face-to-face forums to: share and discuss research questions, methodological approaches and research findings; form collaborations; and discuss issues of professional development.

• To organize professional conferences. Such conferences will include researchers at all career stages, including students. They will be a place where researchers can present their ideas and findings, including ideas still in formation and pilot data, and receive valuable feedback.  Conferences will also be a place to make research findings available to practitioners and policy makers, engage in dialogue with practitioners in order to formulate new and clinically relevant research questions, and create collaborative practice-research networks.

• To organize research-focused workshops for psychotherapy researchers who want to advance their knowledge and skill-set in domains such as research methodology, statistics, grant-writing, etc.

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