Narrative processes in psychotherapy: differences between good and poor outcome clients

Abstract

This paper compares 30 patients with good therapeutic outcome to 30 with poor therapeutic outcome in terms of the differential distribution of (1) Intake Variables (2) Outcome and Process Variables, and (3) Narrative Variables. Results indicated that psychosocial functioning, motivation, pre-therapy symptoms, Working Alliance, total number of therapy sessions, total pre-post symptom reduction, and mean scoring for total working alliance in sessions 3, 4, and 8 discriminated between both groups. Results also showed that almost all narrative variables except some of them discriminated good outcome clients from poor outcome ones from the beginning, midpoint and final stage of their therapeutic process. These results are discussed according to their relevance for clinical practice.