Thinking About Thinking in Therapy: An Examination of Clients' Understanding of Their Therapists' Intentions

Two therapists each provided 2 clients time-limited (10 sessions each) therapies. These were examined to discover relations between (a) clients' understanding of therapists' intentions and episode level outcome, (b) similarities and differences between the participant's valuing of different intentions, and (c) shifts in intentions valued from the beginning to the terminal phases of therapy. By using therapists' segmentation of sessions into episodes and a computerized Counselor Intention List, some positive relations between clients' understanding of counselor intention and episode impact were documented. Differences were found between therapists' and clients' valued intentions as were systematic shifts in valued intentions from beginning to end phases of therapy.