This paper presents a qualitative research method of expert evaluation called the “essay method”. The name reflects that a central part of the method uses the format of the literary essay as a model. The aim of this paper is to discuss how the essay method may function as an instrument in studying and evaluating therapeutic dialogues and other clinical material and interviews. The method implies a close monitoring of clinical material, guided by an overall psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theoretical frame. The method focuses both clinical details and global patterns of a clinical material and the method seems especially fitted for studying relational qualities of psychotherapeutic dialogues. The background for qualitative analysis inn studying psychoanalytic material is discussed and the procedures of using the method is demonstrated. A study of therapeutic competence in a group of beginner therapists is used as an example of the use of the method. It is demonstrated that the method has a potentiality for revising theory or establish new concepts based on empirical findings. The method is compared with other qualitative methods and it is argued that the method is a specific psychoanalytic research method.