Library of Social Science prides itself on the quality of the conferences at which we choose to organize and manage book exhibits. We select meetings that contribute significantly to scholarship—that bring together top people in the field to explore new ideas and approaches.

The Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration is one of the special conferences for which we regularly organize book exhibits. SEPI promotes theoretical diversity, and encourages critical engagement among different psychotherapeutic orientations, providing a forum for alternative ways of working with clinical issues.

Ordinarily, our reports are authored by an LSS staff member who manage the exhibit onsite. For this meeting, we’re publishing a report by two graduate students—providing a taste of the intellectual content of this exciting meeting—and the experience of two young ladies.

PUBLISHERS EXHIBITING AT THE SEPI CONFERENCE: American Mental Health Foundation APA Books Bayou Publishing Brill Cambridge Scholars Publishing Charles C Thomas Publisher Ltd. Cengage Guilford Press Hazelden Publishing Istituto di Gestalt Nehora Press New Harbinger Publications Nova Science Publishing Oxford Univ. Press Pearson Polity Random House St. Martin's Press Verso Books Waterside Press

33rd Annual Conference of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration SEPI promotes theoretical diversity and encourages critical engagement among different psychotherapeutic orientations, providing a community for clinicians, researchers and theorists who explore the limitations of single-school perspectives.

Reflections on SEPI’s Denver Conference

Carly M. Schwartzman & Brittany R. Iles, SUNY at Albany

The 2017 Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) Conference was our first attendance at a SEPI meeting. This was an incredibly eye-opening and thought-provoking experience, which inspired us to consider deeply the researchers and psychotherapists we both hope to be.

Denver, Colorado was the perfect setting for the conference to take place—a stunning city with a view of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The expansive sites and beauty of the surrounding nature encouraged open-minded thought and curiosity.

With hopes of learning more about integrative therapy and our own identities as psychotherapists, we entered the ballroom for opening remarks with excitement, wondering where the series of symposia and research would guide us over the next few days.

Throughout the weekend, there were a number of notable themes and topics discussed that stood out. A topic that seemed to be prevalent throughout the conference was that of training psychotherapists, which was fascinating to us as current students in a doctoral program.

Specifically, during student Alexandre Vaz’s presentation, he discussed whether strength of perception and intuition in a psychotherapist can be taught, or if this is more of an inherent quality.

After personal reflection, we feel that this is a skill that can be strengthened with practice and experience, and is a tool we hope to improve in ourselves when we meet with our own clients this Fall.

Another topic of interest to us was routine outcome monitoring in conjunction with therapist effectiveness. During a symposium on the topic of Therapist Effects, presenters discussed the high variability in therapist effectiveness, as well as research that found that a majority of surveyed outpatients would like access to therapist effectiveness information to aid them in finding a clinician they are confident can be of help. This led us to wonder how we can increase our knowledge about our effectiveness in treatment, and consider if we as a field are engaging in the effort needed to ensure effective treatment for the populations we are so passionate about serving.

This then led us to ask another question: if we do choose to engage in routine outcome monitoring to track and ensure effectiveness with clients, are we using a valid and reliable measurement tools to do so? In Dr. Jennifer Callahan’s panel on “New Directions in Psychotherapy Integration,” she stated that some of the existent routine outcome monitoring instruments do not measure the specific constructs we are actively targeting in therapy. Therefore, she proposed a new measure that includes those constructs, as well as incorporates the dimensions that the National Institute of Mental Health has declared important.

As first-year graduate students, we have learned of and practiced a number of different therapeutic techniques and skills, and have been taught to identify contexts in which such skills would be most appropriate. However, we have also learned that it is not always obvious when certain techniques would be most helpful, thus generating a strong sense of fear of making a mistake with a real client.

As our second-year approaches, during which we will begin therapy with our own patients, the anxiety has gradually increased. However, one (perhaps, strangely) comforting message that we took from this conference was that mistakes will happen in therapy, and even the best therapists regret certain decisions they have made in session. This message was particularly salient during the Friday morning panel, “To Err is Human; To learn from Mistakes... Therapeutic: Senior Psychotherapists Describe Therapeutic Errors and Recovery.” Dr. Jerrold Shapiro discussed how he personally reacted to a false personal accusation made by a client, and Dr. Rhonda Goldman, through a recorded video session, highlighted an error as minute as asking a question at a potentially inappropriate time.

Finally, a theme that was apparent at both the open and conclusion of the conference weekend was that of self-identification with respect to therapeutic orientation. Dr. Marvin Goldfried began the conference with a keynote presentation about integrative decision-making, during which he identified himself as a CBT therapist. An audience member proceeded to ask why he identifies as cognitive-behaviorally oriented while practicing integratively—why not identify as an integrative therapist? This was an interesting and very salient question for us as we will soon begin therapy with our own patients.

Our experience as first-time SEPI attendees was thought-provoking, informative, and encouraging. It was inspiring to participate in a conference that promotes cutting through tribes and steadfast loyalties to specific orientations, to instead come together with the united goal of providing the best treatment for our clients. We very much look forward to attending and presenting at future SEPI conferences!