How do therapists respond to client feedback? A critical review of the research literature
Sammanfattning
In this paper, we aimed to review empirical studies on therapists’ experiences with feedback
procedures, with a focus on the feedback conversation. A thematic analysis of the citations and
descriptions in the identified empirical studies was conducted. Therapists’ experiences could be
categorized into four themes: (1) adoption of a meta-perspective on the therapeutic process and
practice; (2) emergence of incentives to move beyond one’s personal and professional comfort zone;
(3) greater awareness of children’s and adolescents’ perspectives during therapy; and (4) influence of
structured feedback on collaboration with clients. The themes relate to therapy-specific issues as
well as to overall theoretical issues. Given the widespread use of feedback procedures, surprisingly
little research has been published on therapists’ experience with them. This review reveals a strong
need to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the extra interactions that arise with the
inclusion of a feedback procedure in therapy.