Client Perceptions of Therapist Helpfulness V.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What’s therapeutic about therapy?: Client Perceptions of Therapist Helpfulness.
IRAS ID
122326
Contact name
Alexandra Cocklin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Manchester University
Research summary
This study examines patients’ (clients’) perceptions of what makes psychological therapy helpful. We predict that helpfulness will involve being able to talk freely about an important problem, whilst experiencing a degree of difficult emotions and yet feeling in control over this process. This experience may be more important than factors such as believing the therapist to be empathic and knowledgeable. We expect that when therapists facilitate this process taking place, the client can think and talk about their problem from more than one perspective, leading them to generate their own solutions to the problems.
Participants receiving psychological therapy from a Primary Care Mental Health Service will be invited to take part in this research. The study will involve a 30-minute meeting with a therapist in the service to talk about a problem of their choice. The session will be videotaped. The therapist will use a version of cognitive therapy known as Method of Levels, which can be applied to a range of mental health problems. The client will also be invited to watch the recording of their therapy session and asked to rate their experiences at different time intervals using a rating form. These ratings measure how helpful their therapist is and the amount of control experienced by the client during therapy; opportunity to talk freely; and the extent to which they experience difficult emotions during this process. To supplement the ratings that clients provide, we will also conduct open-ended interviews to gather information on what they and the therapist perceive to be the most helpful aspects of therapy.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0366
Date of REC Opinion
6 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion