Effects of brief therapy training on practicing psychotherapists and their clients

Abstract

A ten hour brief therapy training program with format representative of postgraduate training workshops was delivered to practicing psychotherapists at three public clinics. Training procedures and content were specified and provided to program participants in a manual. Clinician volunteers (n = 22) were randomly assigned to Training (n = 12) and Control (n = 10) conditions. Pretraining assessments found no differences between Training and Control group therapists or their clients (n = 176). Relative to clients of Control therapists, Trained therapists' clients received more brief therapy, reported greater treatment satisfaction, had lower client-reported dropout rates, and obtained better therapist ratings of outcome. Possible causes of the training impact and its limitations were discussed.