[Development of the theoretical orientation of psychotherapists. SPR Collaborative Research Network]

This article explores the extent to which, and ways in which, German speaking psychotherapists modify their theoretical orientations as a function of increasing clinical experience. The data for this come from the Development of Psychotherapists Common Core Questionnaire (CCQ), an instrument designed by the SPR Collaborative Research Network to collect a broad range of information about the therapist's background, training, practice etc. Two sections ask directly about the theoretical framework used by therapists to guide their therapeutic work, using a set of scales to assess the degree to which practitioners rely on various general models (analytic/psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, systems theory, other). This permits the construction of profiles of formal and content based theoretical orientation patterns. By asking the question separately about the therapist's current practice, and about their practices as beginners, it also permits an evaluation of self-assessed change. In order to amplify the meaning of the theoretical background we ask therapists to indicate the relative importance of their patients realizing each of a series of therapeutic goals. The findings show very clearly that psychotherapists are very diverse both in the formal patterns and specific contents of their therapeutic orientations, and that they tend, as a role, to integrate two or more distinct theoretical approaches in guiding their clinical work with patients. The adherence to theoretical orientations has a strong impact on the goals that therapists typically work toward with their patients. Our findings show that therapists do pursue different goals depending on which conceptual framework they rely on.