PSYCHOTHERAPY ENGAGERS VERSUS NON-ENGAGERS

dropouts and 7 returned for the therapy session after intake). The study was conducted in
a university counseling center setting with a short-term (12-session limit) model. Results
did not indicate a statistically significant difference in counselor verbal activity between
engagers and non-engagers. Results showed that therapists used less information-giving
and more minimal encouragers during the intake session for non-engagers than compared
to engagers. The opposite was found for engagers: therapists used higher amounts of
information-giving and fewer minimal encouragers during the intake session than would
be expected by chance. Results also showed that client return for a scheduled
appointment after intake was related to an increase in information-giving and a
concurrent decrease in closed questions as the intake session progressed. Table 3
summarizes the results from this study. Tryon (2003) proposed that clients returned for
therapy when their problems had been sufficiently clarified to begin working on the
problems (through the therapist’s providing information in the latter part of the session).
Limitations of the study include: the sample of therapists was very small since only one
therapist (a 38 year-old Caucasian female clinical psychologist with 5 years of post-Ph.D
therapy experience, who had a psychodynamic theoretical orientation) participated in the
study, the client sample consisted of only 11 university student clients (seven
undergraduates, four graduate students) at a large private eastern university, the setting of
the study was a short-term therapy service at the university (the results may not apply to
long-term therapy settings), and the statistical methods may be confounded by differing
levels of therapist verbal activity (i.e. some therapists talk more than others) since the
analyses were based on raw numbers of the helping skills used rather than percentages.
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