PCSP is a peer reviewed, open-access journal and database. It provides innovative, quantitative and qualitative knowledge about psychotherapy process and outcome. PCSP is published by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.
August, 2023 – see our newest case, “Maggie,” a college freshman who presented as acutely depressed and suicidal, requiring hospitalization. Maggie was successfully treated in 40 sessions with a unified therapy integrating concepts and techniques from behavioral, experiential, psychodynamic, and cognitive therapy. Click on the upper left button for the “Newest Case" or the button labeled "Current."
The Case Studies
August 9, 2023 -- FROM THE EDITOR
ANNOUNCING THE PUBLICATION OF OUR 66th ISSUE (Vol. 19, Module 3)
The Many Reasons Why Not to Commit Suicide: The Case of “Maggie”
*** Gregg Henriques, James Madison University, Virginia
Commentaries
*** Jonathan Dubue, University of Alberta, Canada, and Jeff Harris, Independent Practice, Las Cruces, New Mexico
*** Andre Marquis, University of Rochester, New York
EDITOR'S NOTE
College freshman “Maggie” presented to therapist Dr. Gregg Henriques as acutely depressed and suicidal, requiring hospitalization. The target case study in this issue of PCSP describes how Henriques was able, in 40 sessions, to dramatically stop Maggie’s suicidal urges and depression and help her to move towards an emotionally and vocationally successful life.
Henriques calls the theoretical and related clinical approach he employed the “Unified Theory of Knowledge” (UTOK) model, which is integrative and unifying in two ways. First, it includes concepts and techniques from the major psychotherapy traditions—behavioral, experiential, psychodynamic, and cognitive. Second, UTOK grounds these concepts and techniques with key insights from a broad variety of basic science, such as physics, neuroscience, evolutionary theory, developmental and complex systems theories, and the cognitive and behavioral sciences.
While a full explanation of these two types of integration are well beyond the scope of a PCSP case study (Henriques has written extensively on the matter, including two lengthy books!), the Case of “Maggie“ is designed to provide the reader with two perspectives. First, the case study presents a detailed idea of the specific interventions used to combat Maggie’s depression and suicidal urges; and second, the case study offers a sense of how these specific interventions can be embedded in a “big-picture,” unified, scientific metatheory.
Of particular clinical interest in Maggie’s case study is Henriques’ use of a mindfulness-based intervention he developed that he calls “CALM-MO.” The intervention moves the client from a position of “CRITIC” (Critical, Rejecting, Irritable, Tense, Insistent, and Can’t Cope) to a Modus Operandi of "CALM" (Curious, Accepting, Loving, and Motivated).
Both of this issue’s commentaries—by Jonathan Dubue & Jeff Harris and by Andre Marquis—provide important insights and perspectives on both the specifics of the Maggie’s Case and the larger issues raised by Henriques’ embedding psychotherapy work in a scientifically very broad, integrated metatheory.
*** For a Table of Contents and pdf links to the articles, click on the upper left button labeled "Newest Case" or the button labeled "Current."
