Therapist characteristics that predict the outcome of multipatient psychotherapy: Systematic review of empirical studies

Abstract

We defined multipatient psychotherapy as the set of psychotherapeutic techniques applied with more than one patient in the room. Assumptions of what makes a psychotherapist effective guide training programmes but may not be supported by evidence. We need to identify the empirical data on what makes a multipatient psychotherapist effective. We undertook the systematic review of empirical studies which correlate therapist characteristics with measurable patient outcome in multipatient psychotherapy. We found that the scientific literature on the topic is broad and heterogeneous in scope, studying demographic, professional and psychosocial characteristics of the therapists, but is poor in quality. The most solid results are that ethnic matching improves the outcome of family therapy with drug abusing adolescents in some ethnic minorities and that therapist knowledge patterns affect patient satisfaction. We concluded that the therapist characteristics that affect clinical outcome seem to be internal to the therapist and depend on the patient treated.