A prospective study of therapist facilitative interpersonal skills as a predictor of treatment outcome

Abstract

Objective: This study examined whether therapists' facilitative interpersonal skills (FIS) would prospectively predict the outcomes of therapies that occurred more than one year later.

Method: Therapists were 44 clinical psychology trainees who completed the FIS performance task and a self-reported measure of social skills in the initial weeks of their training. In the FIS task, prospective therapists were presented with a standard set of videos portraying clients in therapy. Verbal responses to these therapeutic simulations were recorded and then rated by trained coders. More than one year later, the therapists began providing psychotherapy to clients in a psychology clinic. Clients completed a symptom measure before each therapy session.

Results: Using multilevel modeling, it was found that therapist FIS significantly predicted client symptom change. That is, higher FIS therapists were more effective than lower FIS therapists. However, subsequent analyses showed that this FIS effect was not uniform across all therapy durations; specifically, higher FIS therapists were more effective than lower FIS therapists over shorter durations (e.g., ≤8 sessions) but did not differ from lower FIS therapists in effectiveness for the small percentage of therapies that were longer-term (e.g., >16 sessions).

Conclusions: Therapists' interpersonal characteristics may influence client progress in therapy.