Observer ratings in psychotherapy are a common way of collecting information in psychotherapy research. However, human observers are imperfect instruments, and their ratings may be subject to variability from several sources. One source of variability can be raters' assessing more than 1 instrument at a time. The purpose of this research is to…

The effectiveness of group psychotherapy has been empirically studied and supported over several decades; however, there remains much to understand regarding the specific factors contributing to effective group psychotherapy. The current study uses Kashy and Kenny's (2000) actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) to examine the relationship…

Many meta-analyses of comparative outcome studies found a substantial association of researcher allegiance (RA) and relative treatment effects. Therefore, RA is regarded as a biasing factor in comparative outcome research (RA bias hypothesis). However, the RA bias hypothesis has been criticized as causality might be reversed. That is, RA might be…

This study sought to assess the association of client- and therapist-rated real relationship with each other and with the outcome of brief psychotherapy. It also aimed to determine whether changes over time in perceptions of the real relationship and increasing convergence between clients' and therapists' ratings of the real relationship were…

Psychotherapy is a culturally encapsulated healing practice that is created from and dedicated to specific cultural contexts (Frank & Frank, 1993; Wampold, 2007; Wrenn, 1962). Consequently, conventional psychotherapy is a practice most suitable for dominant cultural groups within North America and Western Europe but may be culturally incongruent…

Many college students underuse professional psychological help for mental health difficulties. The stigma associated with seeking such help appears to be one of the reasons for this underuse. Levels of psychological distress and past use of counseling/psychotherapy have been found to be important correlates of stigma associated with seeking…

The patterns of growth and development of the therapeutic alliance over the course of therapy have been of continued interest to psychotherapy researchers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a simple institutional metacommunication intervention with clients had an effect on the development of the alliance. This adjunctive…

There is a lack of research examining patients' and other group members' agreement about their therapeutic alliance. In the present study, the person-group (P-G) fit model was adopted to predict that the group member symptom reduction will be greater when the group member's and the other group members' perceptions of their alliance to the…

The process of psychotherapy among 16 low-income clients was explored using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) in order to understand and identify their unique experiences and needs. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 women and 4 men who had attended at least 6 sessions of psychotherapy within 6 months of the…

In this rejoinder, the authors address several issues raised by R. L. Worthington and F. R. Dillon (2011) and C. R. Ridley and M. Shaw-Ridley (2011) regarding (a) the measurement of multicultural competencies (MCCs), (b) sampling considerations in multicultural research, and (c) the conceptual frame of multicultural psychotherapy research. The…

This study examined the effects of a mass-media video intervention on expectations, attitudes, and intentions to seek help from professional mental health care services. A public service announcement-style, mass-media video intervention was developed, with prior empirical research on help-seeking behaviors organized according to the theory of…

C. E. Hill (2004) recently developed the concept of therapist immediacy to capture discussion by the therapist about the therapeutic relationship that occurs in the here-and-now of a therapy session. This concept has been expanded to include discussion about the therapeutic relationship by both the client and therapist, captured by the term…

Eleven Christian former clients were sampled to uncover factors contributing to positive versus negative experiences in secular psychotherapy. The qualitative results indicated that although many participants felt hesitant to discuss their faith due to uncertainty about their therapists' reactions, positive experiences were reportedly facilitated…

Prior meta-analyses have found a moderate but robust relationship between alliance and outcome across a broad spectrum of treatments, presenting concerns, contexts, and measurements. However, there continues to be a lively debate about the therapeutic role of the alliance, particularly in treatments that are tested using randomized clinical trial…

Psychological research has shown the detrimental effects that overt heterosexism have on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) clients and on the psychotherapeutic relationship. However, the effects of subtle forms of discrimination, specifically sexual orientation microaggressions, have on LGBQ clients and the therapeutic relationship have not…