Effect of client feedback on couple psychotherapy outcomes.

TLDR

Client feedback, which uses outcome data to monitor therapy progress, has reduced premature terminations and improved outcomes in individual psychotherapy, yet its effectiveness in couple therapy remains largely unexplored. The study aimed to determine whether client feedback would also enhance outcomes in couple therapy. In a randomized couple trial, those receiving client feedback improved significantly more and faster than treatment‑as‑usual couples, with four times as many achieving clinically significant change by treatment’s end.

Abstract

Using outcome data to monitor the progress of treatment and the therapeutic alliance, also known as "client feedback" or "patient-focused research," has yielded impressive results in individual psychotherapy. Client feedback has demonstrated reductions in premature terminations and improved psychotherapy outcomes. However, little research has been conducted using this paradigm with couples receiving therapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the effectiveness of client feedback would extend to couple therapy. Results from a randomized couple clinical trial conducted in a naturalistic setting indicated that couples in a client feedback condition demonstrated statistically significantly more improvement compared with couples receiving treatment as usual and that improvement occurred more rapidly. Also, 4 times as many couples in the feedback condition reported clinically significant change by the end of treatment.