title: Goal consensus and collaboration.
abstract: This article updates our previous article in this journal (Tryon & Winograd, 2001) by examining via meta-analyses results of recent studies, published from 2000 through 2009, that relate goal consensus and collaboration to treatment outcome. Specifically, 15 studies with a total sample size of 1,302 yielded a goal consensus-psychotherapy outcome effect size of .34 (SD = .19, p < .0001, 95% confidence interval = .23-.45), indicating that better outcomes can be expected when patient and therapist agree on therapeutic goals and the processes to achieve these goals. The collaboration-outcome meta-analysis based on 19 studies with a total sample of 2,260 patients yielded a mean correlation of .33 (SD = .17, p < .0001, 95% confidence interval = .25-.42), suggesting that psychotherapy outcome appears to be considerably enhanced when patient and therapist are actively involved in a cooperative relationship. We discuss therapeutic practices that follow from these findings.
authors.affiliation: Program in Educational Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. gtryon@gc.cuny.edu
authors.forename: Georgiana Shick
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Tryon
authors.forename: Greta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Winograd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032921:Consensus; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult