Louis G. Castonguay

Louis G. Castonguay, Ph.D. Bio- sketch After his undergraduate studies in Psychology at the University of Sherbrooke and a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology at the University of Montreal, he completed his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, a clinical internship at U.C. Berkeley, and a Post-doctorate at Stanford University. He is currently Liberal Arts Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. The primary focus of his research is on factors related to the process and impact of psychotherapy, including client (e.g., emotional experience), therapist (e.g., differential level of effectiveness), therapeutic relationship (e.g., working alliance), therapeutic interventions (e.g., techniques), and contextual (e.g., center effects) variables. Over the last several years, he has been conducting practice-oriented research aimed at better understanding and possibly improving psychotherapy as practice in natural settings. He has more than 250 publications, including 13 co-edited books. One of these books (with Michael Barkham and Wolfgang Lutz) is the seventh edition of Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change. His other co-edited books focused on empirically based principles of change in psychotherapy (one with Larry Beutler, and another one with Michael Constantino and Larry Beutler); psychopathology research and psychotherapy (now in its second edition, with Thomas Oltmanns and Abigail Powers Lott); the therapist effects (with Clara Hill); training and supervision in psychotherapy (with Clara Hill); insight in psychotherapy (with Clara Hill); corrective experiences in psychotherapy (with Clara Hill); the integration movement in psychotherapy (with Conrad Lecomte); the integration of practice and research in psychotherapy (with Christopher Muran); and the legacy of influential figures of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, SPR (one with Bernhard Strauss and Jacques Barber, and another with Christopher Muran, Lynne Angus, Jeffrey Hayes, Nicholas Ladany, and Tim Anderson). Based on his dissertation research (on the process of change in cognitive therapy for depression), he won the Graduate Student Paper Competition awarded by the Division of Psychotherapy of the American Psychological Association (APA). He has also received the Early Career Contribution Award from SPR, the Jack D. Krasner Memorial Award from the APA Division of Psychotherapy, and the David Shakow Early Career Award from the APA Division of Clinical Psychology. With Thomas Borkovec and Stephen Ragusea, he has received the Pennsylvania Psychological Association Presidential Award for their work on a state-wide Practice-Research Network. He has also received three additional recognitions from the APA Division of Psychotherapy: The Distinguished Psychologist Award for his lifetime contributions to the field of psychotherapy, the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Mentoring, as well as the Distinguished Research Publications Award. In addition, he received the Distinguished Research Career Award and the Lifetime Contribution Award from SPR. He served as President of SPR and the North American Society for Psychotherapy Research (NASPR). He also co-chaired (with Shelley McMain) the Steering Committee of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI). Moreover, he has co-chaired (with Clara Hill) The Penn State Conferences on The Process of Change, which has regrouped prominent psychotherapy researchers interested in delineating quantitative and qualitative methods that can help us better understand how clients’ change. He has played a leadership role in the Pennsylvania Psychological Association-Practice Research Network (PPA PRN) and has been chairing for several years the committee responsible for the creation and implementation of a Practice Research Network at the Psychology Clinic of the Penn State University. He has also team up with Ben Locke, Jeff Hayes, and Brett Schofield in developing a Practice Research Network involving more than 700 Counseling and Psychological Centers on college campuses in the US. These are part of a number of initiatives that he has been involved in with the goal of fostering an active collaboration between researchers and clinicians. He also maintains a part-time private practice.