Clinical decision making in intake interviews for psychotherapy: a qualitative study.

Abstract

The present paper is based on a study, carried out in an institute for psychotherapy, of intake workers' appraisals of encounters with their clients during intake interviews for psychotherapy. The main purpose of the study was to gain insight into the factors determining intake workers' perceptions of encounters with their clients. The presumed relationship between the perception of clients and the formulation of specific proposals for treatment by intake workers was an additional point of interest. Four intake workers were interviewed by the first author. Each intake worker described his or her encounter during the intake with two separate clients. A semi-structured qualitative interview format and a qualitative method of response analysis were used. A consistent relationship was found between the client's mode of selfpresentation as perceived by the intake worker and the formulation of a specific proposal for treatment. The most conspicuous distinction found was that between the proposal of either deep insight-oriented therapy or supportive therapy and the client's perceived ability or relative inability to be genuinely open emotionally, and get to the core of his or her problems as presented. Further research will be necessary to corroborate the findings described.