APA Books is happy to introduce PsycTHERAPY^®, a new database of therapy demonstration videos that will launch in September. Accessible on the APA PsycNET^® platform for subscribing institutions, it will consist of previously unreleased therapy demonstrations created in the process of taping the APA Psychotherapy Video Series.

Designed for students, faculty, and seasoned professionals in psychotherapy and counseling, PsycTHERAPY is the only subscription database of therapy demonstration videos specifically developed to enable viewers to observe how therapists spontaneously employ different approaches and techniques in practice.

The videos provide examples of some of the most renowned therapists in North America working with participants on a host of therapy topics, which when combined with PsycTHERAPY's powerful search, clip-making, and playlist capabilities makes this a uniquely searchable resource and educational tool.

Dr. Ellen Beckjord, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Biobehavioral Medicine in Oncology Program, noted:

PsycTHERAPY will be a fantastic resource for a clinician at any level of training who encounters a new clinical issue. Being able to search PsycTHERAPY for a quick review of an evidence-based approach to address to a particular psychological issue will make for great just-in-time clinical training.

PsycTHERAPY Beginnings

The idea for PsycTHERAPY was born during creation of the APA Psychotherapy Video Series in the mid-1990s. In the process of producing the DVDs that we ultimately released, we gathered more than 300 hours of video. For each single-therapy DVD we released for the Series, we recorded three to four therapy demonstrations of a therapeutic approach. This left two to three unpublished sessions for each title in the Series. These sessions that were not used were potentially very valuable to clinicians and people in training.

We have long intended to collect the material from the videos into some form of database, initially envisioning a database of transcripts of the therapy demonstrations. With the advent of streaming media, this goal expanded to that of creating a database of the videos themselves. Thus, in late 2010, we began production, culling the videos from a decade of unpublished tapes. That content will comprise the initial release of PsycTHERAPY.

PsycTHERAPY Content

Each video features a therapist working with an individual, couple, or family. Specific therapy topics will include many of the main issues dealt with in psychotherapy and counseling. For example, there are videos featuring sessions dealing with addiction, anxiety, depression, divorce, and health and relationship problems.

Therapists include many recognized experts in their fields demonstrating some of today's most commonly practiced approaches, as well as lesser-known psychotherapeutic models. As with the APA Psychotherapy Video Series, PsycTHERAPY reflects the full breadth of clinical practice in the variety of approaches represented in its content.

Searching PsycTHERAPY

Each PsycTHERAPY video has been coded with index terms and metadata about the participants, the session content, and therapeutic approaches demonstrated. In addition, the videos are transcribed word-for-word, and these transcripts will scroll in synch with the video playback of the therapy demonstration.

The PsycTHERAPY database will be completely searchable, both on the basis of the index terms and metadata, and also within the transcripts. The transcript may be used as a tool to search and skip to precise moments in the therapy demonstration, essentially making each video as searchable as a document.

PsycTHERAPY will be offered through APA PsycNET and the search will be integrated into the platform.

Results are broken out by the other databases along the top and PsycTHERAPY in the box to the left.

The PsycTHERAPY landing page provides database-specific options. Options include a Quick Search box at the top and a featured video section:

Researchers will be able to search the video metadata using the Browse menu. Browse features include All Videos, Therapy Topics, Therapeutic Approaches, and Therapists.

Videos are also searchable by a number of fields, including Transcript and Notes, Title, Therapeutic Approach, Therapist, Therapy Topic, Prescription Drug Use, Test/Measures Used, Date, Index Terms, and Keywords. They may also be limited by Therapist and Client Details. The Sort Results By options are Relevancy and Title.

Here are sample results for searching the Transcript and Notes field for the word "job."

Opening the top results, both streaming video and transcript are available:

A record also includes the metadata:

In addition, users may create playlists of videos or clips from within videos, and these may be shared with a class or smaller group, the user's immediate institution, or with other authorized users of PsycTHERAPY.

PsycTHERAPY Availability and Pricing

PsycTHERAPY will be available to higher education institutions as an annual subscription on the APA PsycNET platform only. 2011 list pricing is a flat-rate of $5,000. Consortia discounts are available.

To obtain more information or request a free 30-day trial (available as of September 2011), contact an APA representative at 1-877-236-2941 or 202-336-5648 or send an email to APA Quotes.

PsycTHERAPY's Future

We anticipate updating the database biannually with 20–40 hours of new therapy demonstrations per update. In time, we hope that it can grow to be a tool for use in a number of areas and with a number of different groups. Dr. Beckjord believes it could be an ideal tool for teaching students:

Not only will PsycTHERAPY be a valuable training tool for clinical skills, but it can also serve as a data repository from which students can learn and hone their qualitative data coding skills in areas such as psychotherapy processing research.

Your Part?

If you'd like to be one of our beta testers, please let us know.