Participants’ Memories for Therapeutic Events and Ratings of Session Effectiveness

Abstract

We investigated various relationships between therapists’ and clients’ memories for important therapeutic events and their assessments of the effectiveness of therapy sessions in 11 therapy dyads. Results showed that clients had greater accuracy of recall of important events for sessions they rated as more effective. There was also a greater match between therapists and clients in their choice of important events for more effective sessions. Finally, therapists displayed greater overall accuracy of recall than did clients. Implications of these results for therapeutic work are explored.