Diagnosis + Treatment = Positive Outcome is a core assumption beneath the notion of evidence-based practice. Based on the Randomised Control Trial, whereby clients with a specific disorder are randomly assigned to a specific therapeutic treatment approaches, this has become the central philosophical approach of our time. This is heavily promoted in Government departments like NICE and Public Health in the UK. Whilst in the US it has led to a narrowing range of treatment options that insurance companies will pay for. The only problem is that there is no evidence to support this idea.

Study after study has found that the results of Randomised Control Trails are similar across all modalities. no one particular structured model of therapy has demonstrated more superior outcomes to another. So what would happen if the whole idea of diagnosis was abandoned and instead, there was just a focus on the effectiveness of treatment rather than the type of treatment offered? Scott Miller interviews Birgit Valla, a Norwegian psychologist, who did just this. See the interview and the results here.