Factors influencing continuance in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
The Glen Nevis Clinic in Melbourne provides subsidised psychoanalytic psychotherapy to patients of limited financial means. In order to provide such a service the Clinic receives financial assistance from a philanthropic trust as well as support from the Victorian Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists. In addition to its clinical services, Glen Nevis in association with Monash University conducts a broad-ranging research program into the process and outcomes of the therapy provided at the Clinic, and the therapist and patient experience of the treatment. The study reported here investigated links between patient personality factors and patient symptoms, and whether these were associated with patients continuing their therapy to the Clinic’s two-year time limit or discontinuing at an earlier stage. The investigation did not demonstrate any clear association between these factors and continuance patterns amongst patients.
However, a number of interesting results outside the original hypothesis came to light during the statistical analysis. Clinic patients’ personality factor scores were significantly different from both a standardised population score and the scores commonly encountered within clinical populations. This suggests that the Clinic is providing services to a population experiencing considerable psychological difficulties evidenced in a broad based measure of personality when compared to both standardised and clinical populations. Despite this fact continuance rates for patients of the Clinic were considerably above those commonly reported in the literature. Arising from this finding a number of recommendations are made for improving continuance rates for clients of psychotherapy services.
