Psychotherapy clients (N=62) were randomly assigned to view a pretherapy orientation videotape at admission or to a control group. Oriented clients understood and recalled the information in the videotape, showed a greater decrease in self-reported symptoms than the control group after one month, and gave favorable feedback regarding the…

Investigated the effects of a workshop fee on stress management skills and workshop evaluations of women participants. Those paying for the workshop scored significantly higher in content recall of stress reduction techniques and significantly lower in follow-up stress levels. (Author/MCF)

Although attitudes concerning different treatment rationales did not vary as a function of problem severity, exposure to a rationale enhanced rated willingness to enter counseling and promoted a more accurate perception of the nature of psychological problems and the requirements of treatment. (Author)

White and Black clients alike expected their counselor to be White. About half of the clients had no preferences. However, clients expressing preferences preferred counselors of their same race. Dropout and satisfaction with treatment were not related to the nature of clients' racial expectations. (Author)

Determined strength of relationship between social desirability, psychological distress, and consumer satisfaction with mental health treatment in 82 clients in therapy. Results indicated that both consumer satisfaction reports and psychological distress scores were contaminated by socially desirable responding. (Author/ABL)

Responds to previous two articles on session impact in counseling process research. Notes that Session Impacts Scale and Session Evaluation Questionnaire have great potential as research tools. Discusses issues of retest reliability, connection of session-level measures to research strategies based on other units of analyses, and suggested uses of…

Examined the relationship of counselor gender to client return rate. Results showed male counselors had higher return rates regardless of their level of experience, the gender of clients, the concerns of clients, or the severity of those concerns. The generalizability of the results of an earlier study are questioned. (Author)

Assessed expectations for counseling success in reference to analytic, behavioral, and Gestalt counseling. Audiotapes were designed, each describing one modality. Differences in expectations for positive results were not found when unbiased descriptions of counseling types were utilized. Only adult females showed expectancy for long-term cure in…

Explored relationship between group members' (n=61) interpersonal problems and their perception of group climate. Found that group members who perceived themselves as too dominant experienced group climate as more avoiding and tense. Those who perceived themselves as too cold and as not having problems with assertiveness perceived group climate as…

Examined the relationship of client and counselor sex, experience level, and type of referral to the return rate of clients after intake interviews. Significant differences were found in return rates relating to counselor/client agreement on the nature of the problem and to the decision to keep or refer clients. (Author)

From readers' ratings of satisfaction, problem resolution, and perceived emotional change during treatment, Consumer Reports magazine (CR, 1995) concluded both that psychotherapy is effective and that longer, more intensive therapy is more effective. The authors compared prospectively gathered 45-Item Outcome Questionnaire scores (OQ-45; M. J.…

Clients were asked to state and rate severity of their presenting problem at the initial interview. A follow-up questionnaire allowed a self-report measure of change (as compared to satisfaction) to be constructed, used to assess the counseling service. Presented at the meeting of the American Personnel and Guidance Association, Chicago, April…

Results provide initial support for the validity of the Counselor Rating Form both as a research tool and as an instrument with clinical utility. The data lend continued support to the usefulness of the social influence model for conceptualizing client change in counseling. (Author)

Clients of both sexes were significantly less likely to return for more counseling when initially interviewed by male intake counselors than by female intake counselors. No significant relationships between return rate and counselor experience level or the decision to keep or to refer clients were observed. (Author)

Examined clients' evaluations of sessions using Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) and Session Impacts Scale (SIS) with large sample (n=2,414 sessions with 218 clients). One or both of SEQ's independent session evaluation indexes, Depth and Smoothness, were highly correlated with SEQ's postsession Positivity and Good Therapist indexes and with…