Title: Assistant Professor

Department: Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology

School/Center: School of Health Professions

Office Location: 404 International Village

Phone:  617.373.7527

Fax: 617.373.8892

E-mail: t.minami@neu.edu

Education/degrees:
BE, Mechanical Engineering, Waseda University
MA, Counseling, Michigan State University
PhD, Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Certification: Psychologist (UT)

Specializations: counseling psychology

Research Interests:  My primary research interests are in psychosocial wellness, from a prevention and treatment systems perspective.  Specifically, three areas have been of interest: (1) effectiveness of psychotherapy in natural clinical settings, (2) sources of variability in therapists’ psychotherapy competence, and (3) applying the implications of the above into a psychosocial wellness
system.

1. Effectiveness: Clinical trials and natural clinical settings differ greatly, and therefore, the differences do not allow for generalizing the results from clinical trials to natural clinical settings in a straightforward manner.  Therefore, there still are fundamental questions that need to be investigated in this area.  For example, are psychological treatments provided in natural clinical settings effective?  If so, why, and if not, why not?  These are questions that I continue to investigate.

2. Variability among therapists: There is nothing counterintuitive about the thought that some therapists might have better outcomes than others.  Currently, there is evidence that this is the case in both natural clinical settings as well as in randomized clinical trials.  Why might some therapists be competent and others not?  How might this be addressed in training and supervision?  Although perhaps threatening to some therapists, these questions are inevitable when considering our clients’ benefits.

3. Psychosocial wellness system: A system of assessment, prevention, and treatment is needed to be integrated into the society.  Currently, in the context of psychotherapy treatment outcome management, such systems are beginning to be implemented in natural clinical settings based on findings on treatment effectiveness and therapist variability.  It is thus obvious to broaden this system into a general psychosocial wellness system that incorporates assessment/screening, prevention/referral, and treatment.  The feasibility of one possible system is currently under investigation.

My hope is that eventually the above investigations and implemented systems could be utilized for promotion of biopsychosocial wellness rather than simply focusing on preventative and remedial efforts.

Public Service: 
Editorial Board, Journal of Counseling Psychology

Courses:
Doctoral Research Seminar (CAPG861)
Research, Evaluation, and Data Analysis (CAPG202)

Publications:
(partial list; *students):
Minami, T., Davies, D. R., Tierney, S. C., Bettmann, J. E., McAward, S. M., *Averill, L. A., Huebner, L. A., Weitzman, L. M., *Benbrook, A. R., Serlin, R. C., & Wampold, B. E. (in press).  Preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of psychological treatments delivered at a university counseling center.  Journal of Counseling Psychology.

Brown, G. S., & Minami, T. (in press).  Outcomes management, reimbursement, and the future of psychotherapy.  In M. A. Hubble, B. L. Duncan, & S. D. Miller (Eds.), The heart and soul of change: What works in therapy (2nd ed.).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Minami, T., Wampold, B. E., Serlin, R. C., Hamilton, E. G., Brown, G. S., & Kircher, J. C. (2008).  Benchmarking the effectiveness of psychotherapy treatment for adult depression in a managed care environment: A preliminary study.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 116-124.

Minami, T., Serlin, R. C., Wampold, B. E., Kircher, J. C., & Brown, G. S. (2008).  Using clinical trials to benchmark effects produced in clinical practice.  Quality and Quantity, 42, 513-525.

Minami, T., & Wampold, B. E. (2008).  Adult psychotherapy in the real world.  In B. W. Walsh (Ed.), Biennial review of counseling psychology.  New York: Routledge.

Gore, P. A., & Minami, T. (2008).  Quantitative research synthesis: The use of meta-analysis in career guidance and vocational psychology.  In J. A. Athanasou & R. Van Esbroeck (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (pp. 627-641).  New York: Springer.

Minami, T., Wampold, B. E., Serlin, R. C., Kircher, J. C., & Brown, G. S. (2007).  Benchmarks for psychotherapy efficacy in adult major depression.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75, 232-243.

Quintana, S. M., & Minami, T. (2006).  Guidelines for meta-analyses of counseling psychology research.  Counseling Psychologist, 34, 839-877.

Wampold, B. E., Minami, T., Tierney, S. C., Baskin, T. W., & Bhati, K. S. (2005).  The placebo is powerful: Estimating placebo effects in medicine and psychotherapy from randomized clinical trials.  Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61, 835-854.

Baskin, T. W., Tierney, S. C., Minami, T., & Wampold, B. E. (2003).  Establishing specificity in psychotherapy: A meta-analysis of structural equivalence of placebo controls. 
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 973-979.

Wampold, B. E., Minami, T., Baskin, T. W., & Tierney, S. C. (2002).  A meta-(re)analysis of the effects of cognitive therapy versus “other therapies” for depression.  Journal of Affective Disorders, 68, 159-165.