Today I was very discouraged and angered to hear that the treatment facility which the Veterans Administration sends ALL of their MST (Military Sexual Trauma) survivors to rejected the Life Beyond Trauma's invitation to have their alums and outpatient members attend FOR FREE.

Why? You ask, well, they only support "evidence based" programs.

So what does "evidenced based" really mean?

What "evidence based" is supposed to mean, is that there is "evidence" according to studies that the treatment protocol followed works. According to the head psychiatrist at this facility it includes (she says) Cognitive Therapy such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. In my book there are several problems with this strict interpretation of "evidence based". To start with, whose evidence are you reading? If you do a search on "evidenced based therapy" in Google, the only terms that come up associated it are cognitive behavioral therapy approaches. The art of therapy is over a hundred years old now and there are multiple lines of therapeutic approaches, ALL of which are able to point to research that supports their efficacy. Even Massage therapy and exercise have been researched and "proven" to be effective therapeutic interventions for depression (and with only beneficial side effects).

How does anyone get off saying that the only "evidence based" therapies are the ones grounded in Cognitive approaches?

The developers of those cognitive therapy approaches have done a great job propagating the idea that these approaches somehow have an upper hand over other approaches. They have better press. That's it. Ironically one of the approaches, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was developed and tested on Borderline Personality Disorder. It works great for that, short term, as do any of the cognitive approaches. Research repeatedly shows that long term approaches to therapy require the development of a healing relationship, and that it makes NO DIFFERENCE what style of therapy is used. The "evidence" is that the efficacy of therapy is totally dependent on the person of the therapist.

In Practice

There are a variety of forms and approaches to therapy being presented throughout the world and all of them have varying degrees of success for different people. What works, long term for you, is not what will work for someone else. Many of my clients have been through strictly cognitive based approaches only to end up back in the hospital or back on substances after "completing" therapy. Mindfulness based approaches, body-mind approaches, energy work, music therapy, art therapy, theophostic therapy, emotional transformation therapy, relationship based therapies, internal family systems therapy... all have fabulous and important value in a persons recovery based on what YOU need. Psychiatric medications are shown to be "evidenced based" and effective as well. But we all know they manipulate their results. Thats really all statistics are good for is "proving" what you want to prove.

Its the Veterans that LOSE

All that said, the veterans at this hospital set up to help survivors of Military Sexual Trauma are losing out. They are being denied even the opportunity to discover what else is out there since this psychiatrist refuses to inform her patients about the conference, and to allow them the chance to attend for free. It makes me very, very sad.