Identifying core categories of client-identified impact of helpful events in psychotherapy: A qualitative meta-analysis

Abstract

A growing number of psychotherapy studies using qualitative approaches to research call for the cumulative assessment of findings. Although summaries of qualitative research studies have been published in psychotherapy research literature, the cumulative assessment of findings emerging from qualitative psychotherapy studies investigating the same research topic has not yet been attempted using empirical analysis. This study explores, through an application of meta-analytical procedures that result in a rigorous secondary analysis of primary qualitative findings, the kinds of impacts that clients identify as helpful. Findings from qualitative studies focusing on client-identified impacts of helpful significant events are analyzed. The qualitative descriptive–interpretative analysis is conducted in an exploratory manner for selected studies. The preliminary results of the qualitative meta-analysis are presented, together with the assessment of utility, possibilities, and shortcomings of the explored method.