Introduction
This site is a structured forum in which mental health professionals can share psychotherapy information in a form that matches the actual process of treatment. It has been available to a limited professional audience for the past few years, and is only now being offered without prior vetting of participants.
Professional users are invited to contribute their expertise in helping increase its usefulness to others.
As new information comes in, the maps will be revised to accommodate to it. In this way, we hope to keep the material as current and comprehensive as possible.
The information is structured.
Treatment Maps organize psychotherapy diagnostic and treatment information to replicate the treatment process as closely as possible. Flow charts to organize and give perspective, and the details are filled in with text. We call the combination “treatment maps”, because they constitute written representations of the work of real-world therapists.
Because the text is organized using flow charts, different treatment paths may be followed for different patients – and for different therapists seeing similar patients. For more on this, see Treatment Maps.
The information is free.
There is no charge for participation, or for personal use of the information provided. Take what you want and use it as you see fit. However, there are limits to its use for commercial or public purposes. See Sect 20 and the section on License to Use for details.
More complete copies of the maps will be available for purchase if you want, in ebook and print-on-demand formats.
The Information is incomplete.
The site serves to organize the knowledge and experience of all who contribute to it. In that spirit, you are invited to share information and the way it is structured by making suggestions for the expansion and modification of the site. When you contribute your own knowledge and expertise, you increase the pool of treatment resources available to the rest of us.
Sources of Information
At present, information is gathered from all reliable resources, at the discretion of the editors and site administrator. Much needs to be done relative to combining research with professional experience, choosing the material to be included, and making the entire process more open and objective.
The site is edited.
Suggestions for changes will be incorporated into the maps at the discretion of the editors.
The site is peer-reviewed.
You are invited to comment on every aspect of the content and structure of the site, including decisions of editors and administrator. For example, to comment on the page you are now reading, click on the bar at the bottom of your screen, where it says “Treatment Maps Forum”. Then follow the directions for posting to the associated bulletin board.
The material is copyrighted.
All material on the site is copyrighted in the name of the licensor, who serves as its custodian. The copyrights and license for this site work together to ensure that the body of structured information we are generating here remains available to us all. To this end,
- The licensor grants you free and unrestricted personal use of the material.
- Some restrictions are placed on reproducing material from the site.
- We all must follow standard citation conventions and acknowledge copyrights, both in including material on the site and reproducing material from the site.
This process is designed to prevent the material we generate from becoming part of someone’s exclusive intellectual property [including the copyright holder] and sold back to us as their own. The License to Reproduce grants you broad rights to reproduce the information and modify it to suit your needs and circumstances.
Making a contribution
All comments, contributions and suggestions are sent to an editor for possible modification of the site or the maps. You must register and agree to the license in order to contribute, but you control access to your personal data.
This is a professional forum. You are accountable for each contribution and should be recognized for it. When you make a contribution to a bulletin board, your name will automatically be appended to the contribution. Editors and the administrator are accountable for all changes to the flow charts, text, and site as a whole. See Section 7 for more about this.
Roster of therapists.
Names, addresses, and licensing information of all therapists who wish it will be listed on the site. There is no charge for listing, through December 2013. At present there is no plan regarding a fee after that time, but it is a possibility.
There are no guarantees.
Professionals are ultimately responsible for the application of this information to their patients or research. People without professional training and experience should not expect to resolve their own issues or the issues of family or friends without the help of trained and experienced psychotherapists. See Disclaimers.