Conference Theme: Psychotherapy in Everyday Life: Extending the Impact of Psychotherapy Research. 

At a time when mental health needs are increasing across North America and persistent gaps in access, quality, and equity of care remain well documented, the Program Committee invites submissions that directly address these challenges through rigorous psychotherapy research. The conference theme emphasizes the systematic examination of how psychotherapy research can be designed, implemented, and translated to inform practice and decision-making beyond controlled research contexts.

The Program Committee encourages submissions that investigate the conduct of methodologically robust psychotherapy research and the translation of findings into routine and nontraditional service settings, including health systems, community-based organizations, educational settings, workplaces, homes, and other everyday contexts. Of particular interest is work that attends to contextual complexity while maintaining scientific rigor, and that examines approaches capable of being implemented at scale. Through this focus, NASPR seeks to advance a vision in which psychotherapy research informs not only individual therapeutic encounters, but also the organizational, technological, and sociocultural systems that shape mental health care delivery across North America.

We particularly welcome submissions that move beyond demonstrations of efficacy to examine the mechanisms, processes, and conditions under which psychotherapy produces change in real-world contexts. We seek contributions that elucidate how psychotherapy functions across diverse populations, settings, and presenting concerns, and that interrogate the multiple interacting factors—clinical, interpersonal, organizational, and structural—that influence effectiveness in everyday life. We aim to foster critical dialogue regarding what it means for psychotherapy to “work” when delivered under conditions of routine practice and system-level constraint.

Focus Areas for Extending Research Impact in North America

The Program Committee has a particular interest in submissions that explicitly address the translation of psychotherapy research into broadly accessible and sustainable impact across North America, including but not limited to the following areas:

Scaling and Accessibility
Research that develops, tests, or evaluates scalable psychotherapy interventions and service delivery models intended to improve access and reduce disparities. Relevant topics include telemental health, stepped-care approaches, task sharing, and workforce innovations, particularly as they relate to underserved or marginalized populations.

Contextualizing Treatment
Empirical studies examining the adaptation, implementation, and effectiveness of psychotherapy in everyday practice contexts, such as schools, primary care, and workplace settings. Submissions should attend to contextual determinants of outcomes, including cultural context, socioeconomic factors, organizational constraints, and systemic barriers to care.

Common Mechanisms and Contextual Factors
Research investigating common therapeutic mechanisms (e.g., alliance, expectancy, meaning-making) and contextual influences that contribute to change in psychotherapy, particularly as they relate to coping with chronic stressors, systemic adversity, and everyday challenges. The Program Committee also welcomes training-focused submissions that examine how clinicians can be trained to identify and leverage these mechanisms in routine practice and community-based contexts.

Policy and Systems-Level Influence
Research that examines how psychotherapy evidence can inform health policy, service system design, technological innovation, and community-level interventions. Submissions in this area may include evaluations of policy-relevant outcomes, implementation studies, or analyses of how research findings are translated into decision-making within mental health systems.

General Submissions

Consistent with NASPR tradition, the Program Committee also invites submissions on all areas of psychotherapy research, practice, and training. We welcome the full range of contributions to the field of psychotherapy, including reports of innovative research methods and empirical studies of different treatment modalities, diverse populations, a wide range of diagnostic and problem categories, and a broad spectrum of theoretical approaches. Although some preference will be given to the presentation of completed studies, we also aim to foster discussion of research projects at various developmental stages, especially in the format of Posters

The 2026 NASPR conference will be a technology-enhanced conference, with a virtual poster session and select conference presentations available for live streaming for NASPR members unable to attend in-person.

Please submit any queries to  northamericanspr@gmail.com

*** The submission deadline is FEBRUARY 13th, 2026, 11:59PM ET ***

SUBMISSION FORMATS AND PROCEDURES

There are five submission categories (each described in detail below): Panels, Individual Papers, Posters, Open Discussions, and Workshops. To increase the value of Poster and Individual Paper sessions, the Program Committee will attempt to organize them into groups by topic.

Submissions are to be made via web-based submission forms (links are included in the submission category descriptions below). Note that all General Panel, Individual Paper, Individual Poster, Open Discussion, and Workshop abstracts have a maximum of 300 words.

Conference Language. The official conference language will be English and all submissions should be written in English. 

First Authorship Limits. First authorship by an individual is limited to either one Paper in a Panel or one Individual Paper. Poster, Open Discussion, or Workshop submissions are unlimited. In addition, individuals can serve as a moderator for multiple panels, as long as they remain limited to one first author paper presentation in a panel or one individual paper presentation. 

If you would like to form collaborative Panels or Open Discussions with other colleagues, please consider using the NASPR listserv.

Continuing Education Credits. We hope to offer at this meeting as many sessions with continuing education (CE) credits as possible. Therefore, we are attempting to make enrollment in the CE process as easy as possible by asking each prospective presenter to include 3 learning objectives, a copy of each presenter's CV with their submission, and 3 relevant references. It is strongly encouraged that relevant bibliographic references include peer-reviewed journal articles published within the last 10 years. For some guidance on writing learning objectives, please visit: https://www.apa.org/ed/sponsor/resources/objectives.pdf 

General Recommendations. The submission form, including CE information, must be completed in one sitting (there is no option to save and return to complete the submission), and make sure to click the submit button when you are ready to submit. You will receive confirmation that your submission was successfully recorded. 

There is no specific account or login procedure assigned to you, therefore you cannot save partial work. Start the submission process only when you are ready to complete the form fully. We recommend completing the proposal in a separate document file, including gathering the names, affiliations, contact information of co-authors, and CVs for all first author presenters. 

If for some reason you are disconnected during the process, please submit a full form again.

Please submit any queries to northamericanspr@gmail.com.

PANELS

Panels should include three to four presentations focused on a common theme or various facets of a large-scale research project. They will be 90 minutes with a minimum of 15 minutes for open discussion. Each panel should have a moderator (normally the organizer of the panel or another relevant person), and those with fewer than four papers are strongly encouraged to have a prepared discussant. We encourage the inclusion of panel discussants that can provide a distinctive research and/or clinical perspective on the panel presentations. 

Note: The panel submission portal is set up for one person (in most cases this will be the moderator) to submit the panel abstract and each paper abstract at the same time. Thus, this person should first collect all abstracts from all panel presenters prior to proceeding to the submission link.

SUBMIT PANEL PROPOSALS HERE 

INDIVIDUAL PAPER

Individual papers are ideally suited for presentations of completed studies or projects that have not been submitted as part of an organized thematic panel. They will be a maximum of 20 minutes, and the Program Committee will organize papers of similar topics to be presented during the same time slot. The Program Committee will also assign a moderator to pace these paper sessions. 

Note: If a large number of individual papers are submitted, or a given paper cannot be thematically linked to others, you might be asked to present your work as a poster. 

SUBMIT INDIVIDUAL PAPER PROPOSALS HERE

OPEN DISCUSSIONS

Open discussions provide an opportunity to assemble a group of interested researchers and/or clinicians to stimulate dialogue on a topic of wide interest. Open discussions are 90 minutes. Discussion participants (up to 5) will briefly address issues or positions to stimulate interactive discussion rather than present formal talks. The discussion may focus on empirical, theoretical, methodological, and/or practice-related topics. 

SUBMIT OPEN DISCUSSION PROPOSALS HERE

POSTERS

All posters will be presented on a virtual platform; however, on the submission form presenters will be asked about their interests in possibly presenting their poster in person. Posters are appropriate for a full range of research reports, including completed studies, pilot data, and works-in-progress. Posters offer a unique opportunity for viewers to see detailed graphical output, as well as to have in-depth individual discussions with the presenter. 

SUBMIT POSTER PROPOSALS HERE

WORKSHOPS

Workshops are suitable for more didactic material. Two types of workshops are encouraged. The first is intended to provide training in specific areas of psychotherapy research, methods, or data analysis. The second type entails the clinical presentation of an assessment or treatment method that is followed by discussion on how best to empirically study or to validate the clinical procedures described.  The workshop learning objectives, method of presentation, and target audience should be clearly outlined. Workshops are 120 minutes, and are likely to be scheduled as pre-conference sessions.

Note: Only a limited number of workshops can be accepted and whether they can be held will depend on registration. Workshops that are strictly practice-oriented, with no connection to research, will not be considered here.

SUBMIT WORKSHOP PROPOSALS HERE

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