Beyond empirically supported treatments: a new contextualized evidence framework for evidence based psychology (opens in new tab)

Over the past three decades, criteria for Empirically Supported Treatments (ESTs) have strengthened methodological rigor in psychotherapy research by prioritizing randomized controlled trials and systematic evidence synthesis. However, prevailing frameworks remain largely centered on efficacy under controlled conditions, offering limited operational guidance for integrating contextual factors that critically shape real-world effectiveness. We propose the Contextualized Empirically Supported T...