Agree to Disagree? A Conversation on ‘Common Features of Psychotherapy’

Professor Mark Creamer
Clinical Psychologist

Professor Mark Creamer is a clinical and consulting psychologist with over 30 years’ experience in the field of post-traumatic mental health.

Mark is internationally recognised for his work in the field and provides policy advice, training and research consultancy to government and non-government organisations, with the aim of improving the recognition, prevention and treatment of psychological problems following stressful life events.
 
Mark is a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, and has an impressive research record with over 180 publications.

Mark is an accomplished speaker and has given numerous presentations (by invitation) at national and international conferences.

 

Dr John Cooper
Psychiatrist

John Cooper is a psychiatrist with an interest in posttraumatic mental health conditions and youth psychiatry.  He has worked over the past 28 years in various settings including private practice, Phoenix Australia - Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health (within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne), the Psychological Trauma Recovery Service at Austin Health and VVCS/Open Arms. Over the past seven years he has moved most of his clinical work to regional Victoria working with a Youth Mental Health Team.   


 

Access 'Common Features of Psychotherapy' (1972) here. 

"I see from the footnotes of the article, “Common Features of Psychotherapy”, that in 1971 Professor Frank gave a series of presentations locally, a couple of which found their way into the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.  The book ‘Persuasion and Healing’ was first published in 1961 so I’m surmising the 1971 Australian lecture tour Jerome Frank made was based on the early success of and interest in his book. 
 
I can’t remember exactly how I happened upon the article– but what I do remember is when I did, it resonated. At the time, I was struggling with the “orthodoxies” of psychotherapeutic approaches - psychoanalysis, CBT etc and reacting to the quasi-religious fervour and adherence displayed by each group of “followers”. To me they were different ways of understanding the same human condition and that when they were effective, they all did something similar.
 
I’ve known Mark Creamer for a long time. I remember approaching him many years ago, as I respected his expertise and skills as a CBT practitioner and teacher, to help me explore my concerns about “psychotherapeutic orthodoxies”. It is possible I did it as a provocative collegiate “stir”!  I remember his argument at the time - about an eclectic approach being sloppy and prone to non-evidence-based idiosyncrasy – was persuasive.  
 
I invited him to join me for this episode of Book Club as I’m hopeful that the article, as it did way back then, will once again provide leverage for an engaging conversation. In anticipating our conversation I’m keen to see if our respective positions about eclectic versus more dogmatic approaches to therapeutic paradigms may have changed after all these years." — Dr John Cooper on his chosen text for Book Club.