Disclosure, concealment, and dishonesty in psychotherapy: A clinically focused review.

Abstract

This issue of Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session focuses on the nature and consequences of psychotherapy clients' disclosures, secrets, and dishonesty, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which therapists can best facilitate greater and more honest disclosure. This introduction to this issue reviews the growing theoretical and empirical literature on the frequency, types, motives, and consequences of client and therapist dishonesty (broadly defined); it also reviews the contributions within this issue, noting the welcome focus of the majority of these papers on the nature of client dishonesty in specific disorders (e.g., eating disorders; substance abuse) and/or specific clinical settings (e.g., prisons). Taken together, these papers speak to the ways that therapists may tailor their clinical interventions to match the specific ways that dishonesty manifests in different clinical populations.