Retraction of Lu et al. (2022)

Reports the retraction of "Therapist initial attachment style, changes in attachment style during training, and client outcome in psychodynamic psychotherapy" by Yun Lu, Dennis M. Kivlighan Jr., Clara E. Hill and Charles J. Gelso (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2022[Nov], Vol 69[6], 794-802). The following article (https://doi.org/10 .1037/cou0000557) is being retracted. This retraction is at the request of coauthors Kivlighan, Hill, and Gelso after the results of an investigation by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB found that the study included data from between one and four therapy clients of the Maryland Psychotherapy Clinic and Research Laboratory (MPCRL) who either had not been asked to provide consent or had withdrawn consent for their data to be included in the research. Lu was not responsible for obtaining and verifying participant consent but agreed to the retraction of this article (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2021-65143-001.) This study extended the cross-sectional therapist attachment literature by examining longitudinal changes of therapist attachment avoidance and anxiety in relation to client treatment outcome. Data consisted of 942 Outcome Questionnaire-45 assessments (Lambert et al., 1996, 2004) of 213 clients working with 30 therapists from a university clinic that provided psychodynamically/interpersonally oriented individual therapy, and yearly therapist self-report of attachment styles using the Experience in Close Relationships Scale (Brennan et al., 1998) over 2-4 years of training at a university clinic. Using multilevel growth modeling, we found that initial attachment anxiety or avoidance alone were not associated with treatment outcomes. Instead, therapists with small increases in attachment avoidance, from a low avoidance baseline, were more effective in helping clients reduce psychological distress than their peers. Findings suggest that small increases in attachment avoidance may be a beneficial development for trainees, as it may reflect a process of learning emotional boundary regulation (Skovholt & Rønnestad, 2003) and taking on the observer aspect of the participant-observer role (Sullivan, 1953). Current findings challenged the assumption that higher therapist attachment avoidance and anxiety is always associated with worse client outcome and suggested the importance of continuous self-reflection to understand how one's own attachment change impacts their clinical practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).