National Registry of Psychotherapies

In the United States, there is a National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP), which is a listing of treatments and interventions in psychotherapy. In 2012, NREPP invited our research team to submit an application for registration of our short-term interpretive group therapy for patients experiencing complicated grief, which we had used since 1986. From the beginning, we experienced difficulties that seemed to be largely attributable to a lack of professional skills required of the director. The director and her team used the metaphor of American football to describe parts of application process. Despite continuing difficulties, we finally completed the application process on time. Eventually, the reviews of the application were completed and the application was approved. The information we provide in this article mainly concerns the trials and tribulations associated with the application process. Overall, the process was frustrating and time-consuming. Consideration of additional variables, such as patient personality characteristics, would likely have provided a more useful set of findings.