PsychoDynamics Lab at the Department of Health Psychology and Clinical Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, is a space dedicated to scientific research on psychodynamic psychotherapy and the mechanisms that shape its effectiveness and course.
What we do
01
Education and outreach
Sharing knowledge about psychotherapy research with practitioners and patients.
02
Research on TFP and MBT
Research on effectiveness and process in psychodynamic psychotherapy.
03
Mentalization and personality
Research projects on mentalization, epistemic trust, and personality pathology.
Two areas of our work
Psychotherapy research: the process–outcome approach
This area covers both the effectiveness of psychotherapy as a treatment (does psychotherapy work? – outcome research) and the mechanisms of change, moderators, and mediators that explain how psychotherapy produces its effects (how does it work? – process research).
Research on the mechanisms of mental disorders
In this area we conduct cross-sectional basic research whose findings may, in the longer term, help identify potential moderators and mediators of change to be tested in longitudinal psychotherapy research.
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Our guiding idea is the search for an answer to a key question in psychotherapy: what works for whom? Investigating why some interventions are effective for some people but not for others, and identifying both effective and ineffective elements of psychotherapy, is essential for designing psychotherapeutic interventions within evidence-based practice.
We are also interested in understanding change in psychotherapy in terms of transtheoretical and transdiagnostic mechanisms – exploring meta-models of change, such as improved mentalizing as a mechanism of change independent of treatment modality and type of disorder. This perspective allows us to examine the effectiveness of psychotherapy at the level of mechanisms and processes, rather than of specific therapeutic models alone.
Our aim is to connect theory and research with clinical practice
We pursue this aim by communicating and promoting our work among professionals and the wider public, including people who use psychotherapy. We also respond to the needs of practitioners – psychotherapists, psychotherapy trainers, and supervisors – by supporting collaboration between academia and clinical practice in planning research and disseminating its findings.
The Lab also aims to involve practitioners in the research process by building practice-research networks, so that research questions address the real needs of the field and fit actual clinical conditions. We seek to develop knowledge that serves both researchers and practitioners. Our overarching goal is to benefit people in psychotherapy by supporting the development of effective, well-tailored treatments.
