Therapist-patient agreement and outcome in group therapy.

Abstract

Examined the importance of therapist-client agreement for therapy outcome in group therapy. Fifty-five clients comprised 12 groups conducted by 6 therapists. The study considered data in two phases. In the first an attempt was made to reduce clients' ambiguity about relationship aspects of therapy via a preparation for therapy. The success of this preparation was measured by comparing experimental and control groups on the degree of agreement between therapist and patient about the quality of the relationship they conjointly experienced. The preparation did not improve agreement. The second phase hypothesis was that there would be a significant relationship between agreement and therapy outcome. While there were scattered significant correlations between agreement and outcome, they were not correlated consistently with the same outcome scores, nor were they consistently positive or negative correlations. This inconsistent relationship was due partially to artifacts of person perception scores. An ancillary finding was significant change after therapy intervention. Agreement was not a powerful predictor of outcome in this study.