Addressing Challenges and Barriers to Translating Psychotherapy Research Into Clinical Practice: The Development of a Psychotherapy Practice Research Network in Canada

Despite a large body of research indicating the effectiveness of evidence-based psychotherapies and therapeutic processes, there remains a practice-research divide. Clinicians do not consistently use evidence to inform their treatments, and researchers do not often rely on clinicians' knowledge to inform their research. This divide is partly due to identifiable barriers. Practice research networks in psychotherapy may be 1 means of bridging the practice-research gap. In this article we use theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) to help to understand the barriers experienced by clinicians in using psychotherapy research. We also evaluated the TPB model by an empirical study of 68 clinicians who attended a conference on practice research networks and who completed a TPB questionnaire prior to the conference. Clinician attitudes toward psychotherapy research, the social norms they experience within their practice settings, and their perceived behavioural control over implementing research were each uniquely and significantly related to intention to use psychotherapy research to inform practice. Intentions were correlated with behaviour change in health professionals. We conclude by describing the development of the Psychotherapy Practice-Research Network (PPRNet) as a unique collaborative approach to bringing clinicians and researchers together to diminish barriers by improving attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioural control among clinicians and researchers. The PPRNet will help to inform clinical practice and generate psychotherapy research that is more meaningful to clinicians and more practically applicable.