Society for Psychotherapy Research

The society has chapters in the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, Latin America, and North America. The Society for Psychotherapy Research also has what it describes as "Area groups" in Australia, Italy, and other specific locations.

The academic journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Psychotherapy Research, is published bi-monthly by Routledge.

Aims and history

SPR encourages the development of research on psychotherapy as well as aims to support and enhance both the empirical basis and applied value of research on psychotherapy. 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 also plays an important role in providing opportunities to psychotherapy researchers for interaction and dialogue by organizing regular meetings to enable communication about research, share methodological innovations, and disseminate research findings and knowledge of their applications. It makes use of print and electronic media to disseminate the results of psychotherapy research and to share ideas related to research methods.

The creation of a Society for Psychotherapy Research goes back to a meeting of psychotherapy researchers in San Francisco in 1968, which was associated to the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. This meeting was sponsored by small donations of the APA Division of Psychotherapy and the American Academy of Psychotherapists. The founders of the group were Kenneth I. Howard and David Orlinsky, with support from Lester Luborsky, Nathaniel Raskin, and Hans Herrman Strupp. The first official conference took place in Highland Park, Illinois in 1969.

4 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

Organization

As of December 2017, the society consists of four regional chapters, two area groups, and five interest sections. The regional chapters are:

Europe
Latin America
North America
United Kingdom

In some areas, there are many active SPR members and local meetings are organized. The area groups are:

Australia
Italy

In addition to the chapters and area groups, there are sections on specific topics that are of interest to members. As of December 2017, there are five special interest sections:

Child, adolescent, and family therapy research
Culture and psychotherapy
Therapist training and development
Case study interest group
Complexity science in psychotherapy

Members

The society has approximately 1,100 members worldwide. Membership includes a free subscription to Psychotherapy Research.

Annual meetings

The international annual meetings take place at the end of June and have been organized since 1970. All scientific programs of the meetings are available online, back to the year 1972.

List of international annual meetings

2026: 57th International Annual Meeting, Osaka, Japan (upcoming)
2025: 56th International Annual Meeting, Kraków, Poland
2024: 55th International Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada
2023: 54th International Annual Meeting, Dublin, Ireland
2022: 53rd International Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, USA
2021: 52nd International Annual Meeting, Heidelberg, Germany
2020: 51st International Annual Meeting, Amherst, MA, USA
2019: 50th International Annual Meeting, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2018: 49th International Annual Meeting, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2017: 48th International Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada
2016: 47th International Annual Meeting, Jerusalem, Israel
2015: 46th International Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, USA
2014: 45th International Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013: 44th International Annual Meeting, Brisbane, Australia
2012: 43rd International Annual Meeting, Virginia Beach, USA
2011: 42nd International Annual Meeting, Bern, Switzerland
2010: 41st International Annual Meeting, Asilomar, CA, USA
2009: 40th International Annual Meeting, Santiago de Chile
2008: 39th International Annual Meeting, Barcelona, Spain
2007: 38th International Annual Meeting, Madison, WI, USA
2006: 37th International Annual Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland
2005: 36th International Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada
2004: 35th International Annual Meeting, Rome, Italy
2003: 34th International Annual Meeting, Weimar, Germany
2002: 33th International Annual Meeting, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
2001: 32nd International Annual Meeting, Montevideo, Uruguay
2000: 31st International Annual Meeting, Blumingdale, IL, USA

Presidents

The past presidents of the SPR have been: