Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale: Development and reliability of an adherence/competence measure for person-centred and experiential psychotherapies

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to assess the reliability of the Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS), a new adherence/competence measure of person-centred and experiential psychotherapies. The PCEPS consists of 15 items with two subscales: Person-Centred Process and Experiential Process. Method: One-hundred twenty audio-recorded segments of therapy sessions were rated independently by two teams of three raters using the PCEPS. Half of the segments were 10 minutes long and the other half were 15 minutes long. Six therapists were experienced therapists and four were counsellors in training. Seven of the therapists identified their work as ‘person-centred’, and three identified their work as ‘process-experiential’. Three raters were qualified and experienced person-centred therapists and three raters were person-centred counselling trainees in their first year of training. Results: Interrater reliabilities were good (alpha: .68–.86), especially when ratings were averaged across items (alpha: .87); interitem reliabilities were quite high (alpha: .98). Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 12-item facilitative relationship factor that cuts across Person-Centred and Experiential subscales (alpha: .98), and a nonfacilitative directiveness factor (3 items, alpha: .89). Conclusions/Implications: The PCEPS has potential for use in RCT research as well as in counselling training and supervision, but will require further testing and validation.

Keywords:

• adherence/competence
• person-centred therapy
• experiential therapy
• measure development

Acknowledgements

We thank BACP for providing the Seedcorn grant that funded this study; and we thank all the raters for their dedicated, meticulous, and thorough work. We also want to thank the therapists and clients of the Strathclyde Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Clinic who generously consented in the use of the audio-recording of their therapy sessions for this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Freire

Biographies

Elizabeth Freire is Lecturer in Counselling and Programme Director of the PgDip/Msc in Person-Centred Counselling at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She is a person-centred therapist, supervisor and trainer. She was the director of a post-graduate person-centred course in Clinical Psychology in Brazil (Delphos Institute) until 2004, when she came to the UK. She has published several articles and chapters in English, and she has also published a book in Portuguese about the theory and practice of person-centred therapy.

Robert Elliott

Robert Elliott is Professor of Counselling in the Counselling Unit at the University of Strathclyde, where he directs its research clinic and teaches counselling research and emotion-focused therapy. He has published more than 130 books, articles and chapters, is past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and previously co-edited the journals Psychotherapy Research, and Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies.

Graham Westwell

Graham Westwell is Senior Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at Edge Hill University. He has taught person-centred/experiential counselling training extensively in further education, and more recently in higher education. He is a board member of the World Association for Person Centered and Experiential Counseling and Psychotherapy (WAPCEPC).