Psychotherapy Pre-Training Using an Introductory Document Offering a Choice as to Therapeutic Framework

• Main Author: Smith, Albert Hill
• Other Authors: Peek, Leon A.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: North Texas State University 1983
• Subjects: psychotherapy; therapeutic framework; client expectancy; Psychotherapy > Testing.; Insight in psychotherapy.; Psychotherapy > Research.
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc332354/

Previous attempts to alter client expectancy and behavior using brief therapy introduction documents have yielded mixed results. This paper reports on the clinical evaluation of such a document which presented individual therapy clients with suggested in-therapy behaviors and offered them a choice as to therapeutic framework. The document told clients that they would be allowed to choose between short term and long term therapy, but woven into the descriptions of these alternatives were repetitions of suggestions for in-therapy behaviors which were intended to positively alter the therapy process and the clients' attitudes toward it. A third choice, no therapy at all, provided the opportunity to present information about what therapy would not offer (medical treatment, direct advise, etc.). Twenty-nine adult subjects (14 experimental, 15 control) were given either the experimental document or a control document (offering no suggested behaviors and no choices) immediately following their initial intake appointment at the North Texas State University Community Psychology Clinic.