Feelings of inexperienced therapists in psychotherapy: a factor analytic study

The Therapy Session Report, a parallel-structured response questionnaire, was utilized to study the feelings of inexperienced therapists. 57 college student applicants at a university counseling center reported on their perceptions of their therapists' feelings immediately following an intake interview. The 19 therapists, clinical psychology graduate students in training, also reported what they felt during the intake session. Factor analysis of patients, perceptions of their therapists' feeling resulted in four factors, the first two accounting for 85% of the common variance. Factor analysis of therapists, perceptions of their own feelings resulted in nine factors. Results suggest that, while patients view their therapists in generally negative positive terms, inexperienced therapists experience considerable affective discomfort during their intake sessions.