Evidence-Based Practice

1. What is evidence-based practice?

Evidence-based practice is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values (Sackett et al., 2000).

An evidence-based therapist combines their own clinical skill and experience with the best available research evidence relevant to their field, applied in a way that is tailored to the individual client.

2. What the register requires of members

Members are required to:

• Interpret their practice primarily in terms of credible, contemporary and mainstream research in psychology, health science and related fields.
• Use techniques supported by a credible interpretation of the relevant research, and avoid techniques that lack empirical support or that research suggests may be harmful.
• Keep up to date with developments in their field through professional journals and ongoing training.
• Make use of clinical supervision to review their practice against current research.

3. Common pitfalls in judging what works

Personal clinical experience is an important factor in deciding how to help clients, but it is not sufficient on its own. Therapists should be aware of the following pitfalls:

• Confirmation bias: a tendency to notice evidence that supports what a therapist already believes.
• Failure to follow up: judging success only from feedback given during sessions, rather than from outcomes measured weeks or months later.
• Absence of real-world testing: a client may report feeling better in a session but relapse when they face the situation that triggered the original problem.
• Non-specific factors: many different forms of therapy show broadly similar success rates, so improvement is not automatically evidence that a specific technique caused it.
• Measurement bias: relying on a single subjective measure of improvement can produce an exaggerated picture of a treatment’s effect.

4. Keeping current with research

Members are expected to read relevant professional journals, maintain a working understanding of research methods sufficient to interpret published studies, and use clinical supervision and CPD to discuss how research should inform their practice.

5. Techniques the register does not endorse

Members do not use techniques that lack credible evidence or that are presented for entertainment rather than therapeutic purposes, including past-life regression and stage hypnosis.