The Nature of Client Agency Prior to Therapy: A Qualitative Study on Clients' Narratives.

client agency client characteristics qualitative research methods

Journal

Psychologica Belgica
ISSN: 2054-670X
Titre abrégé: Psychol Belg
Pays: England
ID NLM: 0067335

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2022
Historique:
received: 25 06 2021
accepted: 29 11 2021
entrez: 28 1 2022
pubmed: 29 1 2022
medline: 29 1 2022
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Client agency is considered a crucial contributor to good treatment outcome. Recent studies, however, differ strongly in how they conceptualise and investigate agency. The current study explores the nature of client agency in ten clients' pre-treatment interviews. Applying Consensual Qualitative Research, we constructed three overarching categories, subdivided into 14 sub-categories capturing both between- and within-person differences in agency before therapy. We found that all participants oscillated between the experience of a lack of grip on problems on the one hand and noticing their involvement in the problem and taking action on the other. These results present a dynamic conceptualisation of client agency. This allows us to ask pertinent questions for both future research and clinical practice.

Identifiants

pubmed: 35087677
doi: 10.5334/pb.1104
pmc: PMC8782080
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

17-28

Informations de copyright

Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s).

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

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Auteurs

Emma Acke (E)

Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, BE.

Melissa Miléna De Smet (MM)

Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, BE.

Kimberly Van Nieuwenhove (K)

Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, BE.

Reitske Meganck (R)

Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, BE.

Classifications MeSH