The trajectories of change for clients are diverse, and they can ebb and flow more than traditional dose-effect and good-enough level models may suggest.

Sample size tables, including varying sample size conditions, were constructed and study examples given. This study gives an insight into the potential size of the TE and provides researchers with a practical guide to aid the planning of future studies in this field.

There is a paucity of empirical studies that demonstrate psychotherapy trainees improve at assisting their clients' therapy outcomes over time. We examined whether trainees (i.e., practicum, predoctoral interns, and postdoctoral fellows) improved in their clients' therapy outcomes over time. We examined 114 trainees (i.e., who were trainees for the first client in the database) and had over 12 months of client outcome data (M = 45.31 months). At the start of their time in our database, about half of the participants (48.2%) were predoctoral interns, 42.1% were practicum students, and 9.6% were postdoctoral fellows. Collectively, they treated 2,991 clients (M = 26 clients per trainee). Clients completed the Behavioral Health Measure, which assesses general psychological functioning (i.e., well-being, symptom distress, and life functioning), as a measure of therapy outcomes. Trainees demonstrated small-sized growth in their clients' outcomes over time (d = 0.04 per year); however, this growth was moderated by client severity. That is, trainees demonstrated growth over time in working with clients who were less distressed (d = -0.13 to 0.10 over time), but there was no change over time for trainees when working with more distressed clients (d = 0.67 to .65 over time). The results were consistent across trainee level (i.e., practicum, predoctoral intern, postdoctoral fellow), yet trainees varied in their patterns of growth. Psychotherapy training has a small, but positive, effect on trainees' ability to foster positive outcomes with their clients over time. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Behavioral Health Measure-20 (BHM-20; Kopta & Lowry, 2002) through the computer-based CelestHealth System-MH (CHS-MH) has proven to be an effective and efficient instrument for assessing psychotherapy outcomes and providing feedback to psychotherapists. This article describes its features, the psychometric and research support of the measure, as well as its use in clinical training and practice. Additionally, we offer some hopes and possibilities for the future of clinical feedback systems.

Objective: Therapist effectiveness has primarily been defined as being the aggregate of the client therapy outcomes within a therapist's caseload. It may seem intuitive that the most skilled therapists are both effective (in the way defined above) and consistent in facilitating positive outcomes across their clients; however, this premise has not been fully tested. The present study sought to empirically examine this question in a large, multisite, geographically diverse sample. We first computed a consistency variable and an aggregate outcome variable for each therapist among a subset of each individual therapist's caseload (the first 30 clients per therapist within our data set). We then utilized this consistency score and aggregate outcome score to predict the therapy outcomes of their remaining clients. Clients' pretreatment severity scores were also included as a moderator of the association between therapist consistency, therapist aggregate outcome, and client outcomes. Method: The sample included 27,778 clients who were treated by 275 therapists. At the start of each session, clients completed the Behavioral Health Measure-20 as a measure of psychological functioning. Results: Polynomial regression and response surface analysis indicated a discrepant effect, such that subsequent clients' outcomes were highest when therapists' aggregate outcome with their first 30 clients was high and the consistency in the outcomes of their first 30 clients was also high. This relationship was not moderated by clients' pretreatment severity. Conclusion: Therapists' expertise consists of both high performance and consistency. Therapists who achieved better outcomes consistently were top performers with their subsequent clients. What is the public health significance of this article?On average, effective therapists do not only have superior outcomes, but they are also more consistent in promoting positive therapy outcomes across the clients they treat.