One hundred twenty tape recorded psychotherapy sessions representing early, middle, and late interviews with 20 clients were studied. Clients were divided into successful (N-10) and unsuccessful outcome (N-10) groups on the basis of clinicians' ratings of pre- and post-MMPI data. Raters scored the response units of clients and therapists and…

Study results indicated that high liking and high empathy together did not predict successful outcome, though a post hoc analysis showed a positive relationship between high empathy alone and successful outcome. Results also indicated that inexperienced therapists were generally less empathic than experienced therapists. (Author)

One of the major tenets of relationship psychotherapy is that the client and therapist have a reciprocal impact on each other's behavior. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between client-therapist interaction patterns and therapeutic outcome. (Author)