The first clinical inferences by psychotherapists with different theoretical approaches and levels of experience

LEIBOVICH DE DUARTE, ADELA; DUHALDE, CONSTANZA; RUTSZTEIN, GUILLERMINA; RUBIO, MARÍA EUGENIA; ZANOTTO, MARCELA; JUAN, SANTIAGO; TORRICELLI, FLAVIA; HUERÍN, VANINA; ROUSSOS, ANDRES

Barcelona

Congreso; 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research; 2008

Society for Psychotherapy Research

This study explores the formulation of first clinical inferences by 101 Spanish–speaking psychotherapists with different theoretical frameworks: cognitive, systemic, psychoanalytic, and a sub-group defining itself explicitly as Lacanian psychoanalysts. Participants were classified according to level of experience: juniors (less than 10 years of experience) and seniors (more than 20). They listened to a tape-recorded first session. The time elapsing between the onset of the session and the formulation of their first clinical inferences was recorded and compared. These first clinical inferences were then analyzed by judges, who classified them according to content and complexity. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the inferences showed that the time elapsed before the first clinical inference was 6 minutes or less for 84% of the participants, 62% of the participants took 3 minutes or less, with results varying only slightly when theoretical framework and level of experience were taken into account. When analyzed for content, clinical inferences referring to mental processes, diagnostic considerations, interpersonal relations and viability of treatment were the types most frequently produced. In terms of complexity, senior analysts produced more combined inferences than junior ones. Cognitive therapists produced more inferences of the diagnostic type, while psychoanalysts produced more inferences referring to mental processes.