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Tracy A. Knight and Alphons A. Richert
Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, American Psychological Association, 2012, Volume 22 (3): 229–54
Recent challenges to the traditional view of the human change process – one that places emphasis primarily upon therapists’ perspectives – have led to attempts better to understand clients’ views of personal change. Although much is known about therapists’ viewpoints of the change process, this narrow attitude neglects the clients’ important contributions to psychotherapy. Understanding and working within the clients’ theories of change has significant clinical and research implications. Eighteen co-participants – including college-age, adult and senior individuals – were interviewed. Interviews were analysed using an iterative process based upon grounded theory. Codings were developed from the co-participants’ narratives based on unanimous decisions and themes were then developed reflecting the type of story shared. Three types of stories emerged from the data: Adaptation, Personal Choice and Delimited Choice. Co-participants’ relative lack of focus on particulars of the change process was evident. In addition, the stories often did not include personal agency as central to the change process. Clients may not come to therapy with a clear and easily elicited theory of change; the understanding of change that guides working with the client may be truly co-created by client and therapist within the psychotherapeutic process.
Marilyn Fitzpatrick
Canadian Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2012, Volume 53 (2): 75–81
Progress monitoring (PM) consists of using standardised measures to follow client progress and give clinicians feedback about response to treatment. PM systems have shown great promise in helping therapists identify when clients are not progressing, which improves both retention and client ou