How do practitioners keep up to date on the research literature?

[Rivi]

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I know there are CEU training seminars, websites like psychotherapybrownbag.com, and the option of subscribing to a particular journal through APA, but it seems that once a practitioner (therapist, etc.) leaves school, there is a degree of loss of contact with the latest research articles about various conditions and therapy. The wonderful world of EBSCOhost is no longer accessible and you have to pay to get a subscription to just one journal. Do you find that clinicians have decent access to the latest literature in our field or stay up to date on the latest articles? Is this an issue worth addressing?

 

[Sun Lips]

Speaking entirely from a personal standpoint via interacting with adjunct professors who are primarily practitioners...they generally don't keep up to date on current research. They have found their niche and they stick to their guns.

Considering these adjunct professors are at least somewhat engaged with academia it's scary to think of the practitioners on their private practice island completely isolated from what's going on.

Just wrote a research paper about how individuals with social anxiety disorder report receiving supportive therapy at much higher rates in therapy as usual in the community than CBT. A striking fact considering that ST has no real evidence for its efficacy with SAD and CBT's wealth of evidence. I personally feel like this is unfortunately just one example among many of a population seeking therapy and receiving outdated and/or ineffective treatment models.

 

[cara susanna]

They usually read mainstream books that discuss research. They also attend workshops and conferences.

I'm actually referencing research on this, btw!