Development of a psychotherapy process prototype for the Real Relationship.

Area of Science:

• Psychotherapy research
• Clinical psychology
• Relationship science

Background:

• The Real Relationship (RR) in psychotherapy is defined by a genuine connection and realistic perceptions between patient and therapist.
• Accurate assessment of the RR is crucial for understanding therapeutic effectiveness.
• Existing methods may not fully capture the nuances of the RR in session recordings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a Psychotherapy Process Q-set (PQS) prototype specifically for assessing the Real Relationship (RR).
• To evaluate the validity of the RR-PQS by examining its associations with established measures.
• To facilitate post-hoc analysis of the RR in recorded psychotherapy sessions.

Main Methods:

• An RR-PQS prototype was created based on consensus ratings from eight RR experts.
• The developed RR-PQS was assessed for its associations with existing cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic PQS prototypes.
• The relationship between the RR-PQS and PQS items known to predict the working alliance was examined.

Main Results:

• High inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.89) was achieved among RR experts for the ideal RR session ratings.
• The RR-PQS demonstrated moderate correlations with both cognitive behavioral (r = 0.66) and psychodynamic (r = 0.56) PQS prototypes.
• PQS items predictive of the working alliance were found to be characteristic of the RR-PQS.

Conclusions:

• The developed RR-PQS prototype functions in theoretically expected ways.
• The RR-PQS shows potential as a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the Real Relationship in psychotherapy.
• This tool can aid in the post-hoc assessment of genuine therapeutic connections in session recordings.