A COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF THE THERAPEUTIC FOCUS IN COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHODYNAMIC-INTERPERSONAL SESSIONS

This study compared therapeutic foci in a sampling of 30 cognitive-beh avioral and 27 psychodynamic-interpersonal manual-driven treatments fo r depression. High-and low-impact sessions were coded for each client, with the Coding System of Therapeutic Focus. Results indicated that p sychodynamic-interpersonal sessions focused more on such variables as emotion, patterns, incongruities, the impact that others made on clien ts, clients' expected reaction of others, the tendency to avoid therap eutic progress, therapists themselves, clients' parents, and links bet ween people and time periods in clients' lives. Cognitive-behavioral s essions placed greater emphasis on external circumstances and clients' ability to make decisions, gave more support and information and enco uraged between-session experiences, and focused more on the future. Re latively few differences emerged as a function of session impact. Resu lts are discussed In terms of the different and similar theoretical co nceptions of the change process.