Do patients and their therapists agree on the content of treatments?

Agreement between therapist and patient regarding their perception of therapist's interventions and qualities was studied. Based on previous instruments, a 36-item inventory (TIQI) was constructed to cover common therapist interventions/qualities as perceived by both therapist and patient. This inventory was given to patient and therapist at the termination of 300 outpatients' treatments. Interventions made by the therapist and their perceived usefulness in the treatment were rated by both participants. The mean agreement between patient and therapist for each of the 36 items was low to moderate (r = .23). However, explorative factor analysis on patient and therapist data revealed some meaningful common treatment factors. In addition, cross invariance (patient and therapist perspective) was found by use of confirmatory factor analysis. Agreement varied considerably depending on which aspects were dealt with and the method used to measure the agreement. Possible explanations for disagreement are discussed.