Book of Abstracts of the canceled event: 51st Annual International Meeting June 17-20, 2020 Amherst, MA, USA Preface Dear Colleagues, Although expected with the accumulation of bad news about the spread of the Corona virus at the beginning of the year, the final cancellation of the SPR conference in Amherst 2020 hit us very hard. Most directly affected were our excellent local hosts, Mike Constantino and the local host committee (Rebecca Ametrano, James Boswell, Laurie Heatherington, and their student helpers Alice Coyne, Averi Gaines, Brien Goodwin, Heather Muir, Jennifer Oswald), as well as the representatives of the University of Massachusetts. They all had put countless hours of dedicated work into preparing what had promised to be an excellently organized conference. Excellent was not only the preparation of the conference, but also the minimization of financial consequences of the cancellation for SPR. Thank you all very, very much! As program chair, I first wish to express my gratitude to the members of our society who had submitted more than 500 panels, brief papers, structured discussions, posters, and pre-conference workshops. My thanks also go to a formidable bunch of people who all put a lot of time, effort, and dedication into the development of this excellent program: our core program team (Juan Martín Gomez Penedo, and Laura Challu), as well as the members of the program council (Alice Coyne, Kim de Jong, Jaime Delgadillo, Juan Martín Gomez Penedo, Jack Keefe, Fernanda Serralta, and Nili Solomonov). My special thanks also go to our late executive officer, Marna Barrett, our administrative officer and successor Bernadette Walter, as well as our president and program chair of the last SPR conference in Buenos Aires, Bruce Wampold, for offering their invaluable support and advice. This book of abstracts contains the contents of the scientific program of Amherst 2020. Regrettably, we have to use the grammatical form of conjunctive when presenting the program highlights. Two clinical pre-conference workshops (by Catherine Eubanks/Chris Muran and Lorna Benjamin/Ken Critchfield) and two methodological pre-conference workshops (by Eva Hudlicka, Fredrik Falkenstrom/Nili Solomonov) would have demonstrated the intertwining of research and practice in SPR. In a plenary on the conference theme of “Personalizing psychotherapy to its participants and moments,” chaired by Bruce Wampold and myself, each plenary member (Wolfgang Lutz, Jaime Delgadillo, Fredrik Falkenström, Alice Coyne, Sigal Zilcha-Mano, and John Norcross) would have offered their answers to leading questions on the personalization of psychotherapy followed by discussions within the panel and with the audience. The six semi- plenaries to be chaired by leaders in the field would have provided exciting insights into current psychotherapy research on the following topics: Methodological advancements for studying mechanisms of change (Sigal Zilcha-Mano, and Julian Rubel), modern technologies in the practice of psychotherapy (Andres Roussos), advances in psychotherapy research in children and adolescents (Stefanie Schmidt), achieving gender equity and women's empowerment in psychotherapy research (Shelley McMain), generating practice-based evidence (Louis Castonguay), and future directions for psychotherapy research (Jacques Barber). As you will see, the topics of the programmed panels, brief-paper sessions, structured discussions, and poster sessions impressively reflect the breadth and depth of research by the members of SPR. Fortunately, all the work was not invested in vain. Now, we are closely working together with the incoming program chair of the SPR conference 2021 in Heidelberg, Shelley McMain, to transfer the treasures of the Amherst program to create another great conference program that will further advance psychotherapy research. We are very much looking forward to rejoining at the SPR 2021 conference in Heidelberg! Martin grosse Holtforth, Chair of the Program Committee 1 President Bruce Wampold Past President Mariane Krause President Elect Martin grosse Holtforth General Vice-President Shelley McMain Regional Chapter Presidents Latin America Daniel Espinosa United Kingdom Felicitas Rost North America Kevin McCarthy Europe Svenja Taubner Program Planning Committee Martin grosse Holtforth (Program Chair), Michael Constantino (Local Host), Juan Martín Gomez Penedo, Laura Challu, Alice Coyne, Kim de Jong, Jaime Delgadillo, Jack Keefe, Fernanda Serralta, Nili Solomonov Local Organizing Committee Michael Constantino (Chair, Local Organizing Committee), Rebecca Ametrano, James Boswell, Laurie Heatherington Web & IT Sven Schneider Meetingsavvy. com Brad Smith Copyright @ 2020 Society for Psychotherapy Research www. psychotherapyresearch. org 2 Past Presidents Term Program Chair Conference Site 1970-1971 Ken Howard Chicago, USA 1971-1972 David Orlinsky Saddle Brook, USA 1972-1973 Hans Strupp Nashville, USA 1973-1974 Lester Luborsky Philadelphia, USA 1974-1975 Allen Bergin Denver, USA 1975-1976 Sol Garfield Boston, USA/London UK 1976-1977 Aaron T. Beck San Diego, USA 1977-1978 Morris B. Parloff Madison, USA 1978-1979 Irene Elkin Toronto, Canada 1979-1980 Edward S. Bordin Oxford, UK 1980-1981 Mardi J. Horowitz Pacific Grove, USA 1981-1982 Alan S. Gurman Smugglers’ Notch, USA 1983-1984 Arthur H. Auerbach Sheffield, England 1984-1985 A. John Rush Lake Louse, Canada 1985-1986 Jim Mintz Evanston, USA 1986-1987 Larry E. Beutler Wellesley, USA 1987-1988 Larry E. Beutler Ulm, Germany 1988-1989 Charles R. Marmar Santa Fe, USA 1989-1990 Leslie S. Greenberg Toronto, Canada 1990-1991 Horst Kächele Wintergreen, USA 1991-1992 Lorna Smith Benjamin Lyon, France 1992-1993 Leonard M. Horowitz Berkeley, USA 1993-1994 David A. Shapiro Pittsburgh, USA 1994-1995 Clara E. Hill York, England 1995-1996 Klaus Grawe Vancouver, Canada 1996-1997 Paul Crits-Christoph Amelia Island, USA 1997-1998 William B. Stiles Geilo, Norway 3 1998-1999 Marvin R. Goldfried Snowbird, USA 1999-2000 William E. Piper Braga, Portugal 2000-2001 Robert Elliott Bloomingdale, USA 2001-2002 Franz Caspar Montevideo, Uruguay 2002-2003 Karla Moras Santa Barbara, USA 2003-2004 Mark Aveline Weimar, Germany 2004-2005 John Clarkin Rome, Italy 2005-2006 Michael J. Lambert Montreal, Canada 2006-2007 Erhard Mergenthaler Edinburgh, Scotland 2007-2008 Jacques P. Barber Madison, USA 2008-2009 Bernhard Strauss Barcelona, Spain 2009-2010 Louis Castonguay Santiago de Chile, Chile 2010-2011 Lynne Angus Asilomar, USA 2011-2012 Guillermo De la Parra Bern, Switzerland 2012-2013 George Silberschatz Virginia Beach, USA 2013-2014 Hadas Wiseman Brisbane, Australia 2014-2015 Jeanne Watson Copenhagen, Denmark 2015-2016 J. Christopher Perry Philadelphia, USA 2016-2017 J. Christopher Muran Jerusalem, Israel 2017-2018 Paulo Machado Toronto, Canada 2018-2019 Mariane Krause Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2019-2020 Bruce Wampold Buenos Aires, Argentina 4 Plenary Personalizing psychotherapy to its participants and moments Organizers: Bruce Wampold, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA; Martin grosse Holtforth, University of Bern, Switzerland Semi-Plenary Generating practice-based evidence: Practical tips on how to do it, make it actionable, and build it to last. Organizer: Louis Castonguay, Penn State University, Integration of practice, training, and research University Park, USA Dana Atzil-Slonim, Bar Ilan University; Rebecca Drill, Cambridge Health Alliance/ Harvard Medical School; Guadalupe Molinari, CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition; Aiglé Foundation Implementation science and community participatory research Soo Jeong Youn, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School; Gayle Brooks, The Renfrew Center; James F. Boswell, University at Albany/SUNY, USA Patient focused research Kim de Jong, Leiden University, Netherlands; Juan Martín Gómez Penedo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Wolfgang Lutz, Universität Trier, Germany Practice based evidence and practice research network Ryan Kilcullen, Penn State University; Andrew C Page, University of Western Australia, Australia; Michael Barkham, University of Sheffield, UK Semi-Plenary Studying mechanisms of change: Methodological advancements and novel computational approaches Organizers: Sigal Zilcha- Mano, University of Haifa, Israel; Julian Rubel, University of Giessen, Germany Semi-Plenary Information and Communications Technologies in Psychotherapy, how wework and how we would like to work with them Organizer: Andrés Roussos, CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires Semi-Plenary Gaps in representation among researchers: Achieving gender equity and women's empowerment Organizer: Shelley McMain, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 5 Semi-Plenary Some Promising Future Directions for Psychotherapy Research Organizer: Jacques P. Barber, Adelphi University, New York, USA Semi-Plenary Advances in psychotherapy research in children and adolescents Organizer: Stefanie Schmidt, University of Bern, Switzerland Structured Discussion Responsiveness to Participants and Moments in Different Therapeutic Approaches Process and outcome This Structured Discussion Group addresses the conference theme -- "Personalizing psychotherapy to its Organizer: Hadas Wiseman, participants and moments" by asking how responsiveness can be enhanced in psychotherapy? University of Haifa, Israel Responsiveness is a ubiquitous characteristic of the therapist--client dialogue and refers to patient and therapist behavior that is affected by emerging context (Stiles et al, 1998; Kramer & Stiles, 2015).