Goal consensus and collaboration

Abstract

This article updates our previous article in this journal (Tryon & Winograd, 2001) by examining via meta-analyses results of recent studies, published from 2000 through 2009, that relate goal consensus and collaboration to treatment outcome. Specifically, 15 studies with a total sample size of 1,302 yielded a goal consensus-psychotherapy outcome effect size of .34 (SD = .19, p < .0001, 95% confidence interval = .23-.45), indicating that better outcomes can be expected when patient and therapist agree on therapeutic goals and the processes to achieve these goals. The collaboration-outcome meta-analysis based on 19 studies with a total sample of 2,260 patients yielded a mean correlation of .33 (SD = .17, p < .0001, 95% confidence interval = .25-.42), suggesting that psychotherapy outcome appears to be considerably enhanced when patient and therapist are actively involved in a cooperative relationship. We discuss therapeutic practices that follow from these findings.