APTITUDE-TREATMENT INTERACTIONS BASED ON CLIENTS ASSIMILATION OF THEIR PRESENTING PROBLEMS

Assigning clients to treatments on the basis of their differential apt itudes for those treatments may reduce variability and improve the mea n outcomes of psychotherapy. The assimilation model suggests that in t ime-limited treatments, clients with well-assimilated problems would d o better in cognitive or behavioral therapies than in psychodynamic, e xperiential, or interpersonal therapies, whereas the reverse should be the case for clients with poorly assimilated problems. Results for hi gh-, moderate-, and low-assimilation subgroups (based on rating the le vel of assimilation of problems presented in the first 20 min of first sessions) of clients (N = 112) randomly assigned to time-limited cogn itive-behavioral or psychodynamic-interpersonal treatment supported th e first suggestion but not the second (clients with poorly assimilated problems did equally well in both treatments).