Relevance of therapy goals in outpatient cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic psychotherapy

Abstract

These findings underline the importance of consideration of patients' individual treatment goals in clinical practice and underpin the relevance of therapy goals for future psychotherapy research.

What the patient wants: Addressing patients’ treatment targets in an integrative group psychotherapy programme

“…Indeed, the patient's individual goals can form the basis for consensus between therapist and patient on the nature of their collaborative work (Tryon & Winograd, 2011). Despite the recognition of the importance of the patient's individual treatment targets, empirical investigation regarding this issue remains less well developed than research focused on symptom or disorder-specific targets (Sch€ ottke, Trame, & Sembill, 2014).…”

Individual goal achievement in group psychotherapy: The roles of psychological mindedness and group process in interpretive and supportive therapy for complicated grief

“…These goals may or may not be directly related to the symptoms of their index complaint or condition, though may be of central importance to their sense of benefit from treatment and quality of life. Despite acknowledgement that achievement of personal treatment goals is an important clinical outcome (Clarkin & Livesley, ; Ingram, ), empirical knowledge regarding the factors that contribute to personal goal achievement is relatively limited (Schöttke, Trame, & Sembill, ). Certain patient characteristics may contribute to patients being able to address their individual objectives in particular kinds of therapy.…”

“…Increasing calls for personalization of psychotherapy (Cuijpers, Ebert, Acarturk, Andersson, & Cristea, ; Silberschatz, ), or the tailoring of treatment to the individual needs of each patient, may focus renewed attention to the issue of individual goals in psychotherapy research. Various methods for evaluating individual goals have recently been developed, including category‐based and disorder‐specific checklists (Grosse & Grawe, ; Schöttke et al, ; Wood & McMurran, ). Research suggests that such goals only partially correspond to disorder‐specific symptoms (Ramnerö & Jansson, ), with meta‐analytic findings indicating considerably larger effect sizes for change in personalized treatment goals than for symptom measures (Lindhiem, Bennett, Orimoto, & Kolko, ).…”

“…Although individual treatment goals have been the subject of psychotherapy research since the 1960s (Battle et al, 1966;Kiresuk & Sherman, 1968), empirical investigation regarding this aspect of therapy remains underdeveloped compared with symptom and disorderspecific outcomes (Schöttke et al, 2014). Increasing calls for personalization of psychotherapy (Cuijpers, Ebert, Acarturk, Andersson, & Cristea, 2016;Silberschatz, 2017), or the tailoring of treatment to the individual needs of each patient, may focus renewed attention to the issue of individual goals in psychotherapy research.…”

“…Increasing calls for personalization of psychotherapy (Cuijpers, Ebert, Acarturk, Andersson, & Cristea, 2016;Silberschatz, 2017), or the tailoring of treatment to the individual needs of each patient, may focus renewed attention to the issue of individual goals in psychotherapy research. Various methods for evaluating individual goals have recently been developed, including category-based and disorder-specific checklists (Grosse & Grawe, 2002;Schöttke et al, 2014;Wood & McMurran, 2013).…”