Personal construct psychotherapy and the cognitive therapies: Different intheory but can they be differentiated in practice?

This article delineates differences between personal construct psychotherap y and rationalist cognitive therapy at a theoretical level and in the natur e of the therapeutic relationship and presents an empirical investigation o f these differences. Transcripts of sessions of the two forms of therapy me re blindly differentiated by leading proponents of the therapies concerned Significant differences between the therapies were demonstrated on the Vand erbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale, the Hill Counselor Verbal Response Cate gory System, the Toukmanian System of Levels of Client Processing, and the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. Scores on these measures were also found to be differentially related to measures of tightness of construing a nd direction of interest in the two therapies. To exemplify differences in process between the two therapies, their approach to the resistant client i s considered.