Delineating Prototypes of Training Psychotherapy

There is no reported research comparing psychotherapy for trainees to psychotherapy for clinical patients. This preliminary study examines similarities and differences between the Training Psychotherapy Experience (TPE), an elective offered to residents in a large psychiatry training program, and psychotherapy conducted by the same clinicians in their private practices (TAU). We used the Psychotherapy Process Q-set (PQS; Ablon & Jones, 1998; Ablon, Levy, & Katzenstein, 2006). All program consultants who perform TPE were offered their standard fee to complete one PQS while envisioning a typical TPE session and another while envisioning a typical TAU session, using their own assessment of what happens in such sessions. These data were subjected to factor analysis to develop prototypes (TAU and TPE) that could be compared with each other and with validated prototypes developed by Ablon and Jones (1998, 2002). Twenty-two of the 25 clinicians who perform TPE (88%) responded to the study. We found two distinct prototypes in both TPE and TAU. One correlated significantly with Ablon and Jones' Cognitive-Behavioral and Interpersonal prototypes, and the other with their Psychodynamic prototype. There was no significant difference between corresponding TPE and TAU prototypes. We conclude, first, TPE offers trainees an experience of psychotherapy that is very similar to psychotherapy of actual patients. Second, experienced clinicians integrate a broad array of useful interventions into both TPE and TAU.