Development of the Client Treatment Orientation Scale

RM 217

The purpose of this study is to begin development of a treatment orientation scale. Currently there is a lack of research regarding the use of client preference scales, as well as, currents scales do not measure client treatment orientation and magnitude of the relationship. The only other measurement method for client preferences was an interview, which can be time consuming, but also does not clearly show strength for a preferred treatment type. This scale will seek to measure both treatment type/orientation and the magnitude of the relationship. This scale may help in deciding on therapeutic orientations or strategies for the individual client’s treatment. Additionally, this scale may also bring about information that can be foci in the therapy session. Utilization of this scale may also foster greater therapeutic alliance earlier in therapy by addressing the client’s preference treatment orientation during or throughout therapy. Also, if the client does prefer a treatment that is less efficacious for a specific problem, it can now be addressed earlier in treatment. English-speaking therapists will be recruited as participants to act as subject matter experts for this study. Multiple exploratory factor analyses and reliability analyses will be used to analyze the data. Analytic information will be used to reduce the total number of questions to allow for greater applicable use for practitioners. Future research will include collection of another therapist-based sample to analyze with confirmatory factor analyses.