Expectations and assessments of psychotherapy from the point of view of psychotherapists and clients.

Abstract

The research we will present set out to study the expectations and assessments of psychotherapy expressed by a group of psychotherapists and a group of clients, proceeding with two parallel investigations, the data from which were then compared. This work seeks to contribute to psychotherapy research by exploring an area which is not often examined in such studies. We are referring to the experiences and the symbolic significance with which psychotherapists and clients represent the psychotherapy experience to themselves. As it ventures into largely unexplored country, the research takes the form of an initial survey of the themes in question. In terms of the model we will adopt to examine these experiences, we will talk about collusion, meaning the emotional dynamic by which people symbolise a context that they share. The experiences of the psychotherapists and patients are therefore considered not in their individual dimension, but in their capacity to express a ‘demand culture’ in psychotherapy, seen from the point of view of the expectations with which the patients turned to it, and of the service the psychotherapists think they are delivering in response to these expectations. This study thus sets out to contribute to the debate on the relation between the commissioner of the intervention and the social mandate for psychotherapy intervention, an issue of particular interest for those that deal with development in our profession.