Person Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS): development and reliability of an adherence/competence measure for person-centred and experiential psychotherapies

TY - JOUR

T1 - Person Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS)

T2 - Counselling and Psychotherapy Research

AU - Freire, Elizabeth

AU - Elliott, Robert

AU - Westwell, Graham

N1 - Accepted for publication: 09/04/2013 This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in the Counselling and Psychotherapy Research: Linking research with practice, 2013, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14733145.2013.808682.

PY - 2014/8/15

Y1 - 2014/8/15

N2 - Aims: This study aimed to assess the reliability of the Person Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS), a new adherence/competence measure of person-centred and experiential psychotherapies. The PCEPS consists of 15 items with two subscales: Person Centred Process, and Experiential Process. Method: One-hundred twenty audio-recorded segments of therapy sessions were rated independently by two teams of three raters using the PCEPS. Half of the segments were 10 min long and the other half were 15 min long. Six therapists were experienced therapists and four were counsellors in training. Seven of the therapists identified their work as 'person-centred’, and three identifed their work as 'process-experiential'. Three raters were qualified and experienced person- centred therapists and three raters were person-centred counselling trainees in their first year of training. Results: Interrater reliabilities were good (alpha: .68 - .86), especially when ratings were averaged across items (alpha: .87); interitem reliabilities were quite high (alpha: .98). Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 12-item facilitative relationship factor that cuts across Person-centred and Experiential subscales (alpha: .98), and a nonfacilitative directiveness factor (3 items, alpha: .89). Conclusions/Implications: The PCEPS has potential for use in RCT research as well as in counselling training and supervision, but will require further testing and validation.

AB - Aims: This study aimed to assess the reliability of the Person Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS), a new adherence/competence measure of person-centred and experiential psychotherapies. The PCEPS consists of 15 items with two subscales: Person Centred Process, and Experiential Process. Method: One-hundred twenty audio-recorded segments of therapy sessions were rated independently by two teams of three raters using the PCEPS. Half of the segments were 10 min long and the other half were 15 min long. Six therapists were experienced therapists and four were counsellors in training. Seven of the therapists identified their work as 'person-centred’, and three identifed their work as 'process-experiential'. Three raters were qualified and experienced person- centred therapists and three raters were person-centred counselling trainees in their first year of training. Results: Interrater reliabilities were good (alpha: .68 - .86), especially when ratings were averaged across items (alpha: .87); interitem reliabilities were quite high (alpha: .98). Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 12-item facilitative relationship factor that cuts across Person-centred and Experiential subscales (alpha: .98), and a nonfacilitative directiveness factor (3 items, alpha: .89). Conclusions/Implications: The PCEPS has potential for use in RCT research as well as in counselling training and supervision, but will require further testing and validation.

KW - adherence/competence

KW - person-centred therapy

KW - experiential therapy

KW - measure development

UR - http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcpr20/current

U2 - 10.1080/14733145.2013.808682

DO - 10.1080/14733145.2013.808682

M3 - Article

VL - 14

SP - 220

EP - 226

JO - Counselling and Psychotherapy Research

JF - Counselling and Psychotherapy Research

SN - 1473-3145

IS - 3

ER -