Therapists' relationships with their patients in the intake interview: an empirical comparison of psychodynamically and cognitive-behaviorally oriented psychotherapists.

Abstract

This study was conducted in a real-life clinical practice setting and assessed the working alliances, countertransference feelings, diagnostic ratings, and prognostic judgments among psychotherapists at a university outpatient clinic. The study was based on the intake judgments of 9 psychodynamically and 4 cognitive-behaviorally oriented therapists, who had been assessed after having completed their diagnostic interviews with 144 and 89 patients, respectively. Cognitive-behaviorally oriented therapists perceived the quality of the working alliance to be better and their feelings of sympathy to be stronger than did psychodynamically oriented therapists. In addition, they perceived patients' motivation, the amount of shared understanding of the illness as well as several prognostical factors to be more favorable. The results may reflect different therapeutic philosophies and value systems inherent to the cognitive-behavioral and psychoanalytic orientations.