RETRACTED ARTICLE: Therapist immediacy: The association with working alliance, real relationship, session quality, and time in psychotherapy

Abstract

We, the Editors and Publisher of the journal Psychotherapy Research, have retracted the following article: Naama Shafran, Dennis M. Kivlighan, Charles J. Gelso, Avantika Bhatia & Clara E. Hill (2017) Therapist immediacy: The association with working alliance, real relationship, session quality, and time in psychotherapy, Psychotherapy Research, 27:6, 737-748, doi:10.1080/10503307.2016.1158884 Since publication, concerns had been raised about informed consent. The University of Maryland College Park Institutional Review Board investigated and they found that some data included in the publication were obtained from therapy clients who had either not been asked to provide consent or who had withdrawn consent for their data to be included in the study research. The investigation concluded that this article should be retracted. The authors agree with the retraction of this article. We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and COPE guidelines. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.