Sequential Analyses of Therapist-Client Interaction During Change Events: A Task-Focused Approach

In this article, we describe a task-focused approach that uses sequential analyses as deductive techniques for studying therapist-client interactions in the context of clinical microtheories of change events. The methodology is demonstrated in a study of a class of change events in client-centered therapy referred to as the resolution of problematic reactions. Logit-loglinear analysis and binomial z scores were used to test the effects of therapist behavior, assessed by therapist vocal quality and by the therapist task-relevant system, on client process assessed by client vocal quality and by the Experiencing Scale. The results indicated (a) that therapist productive voice facilitated a shift from poor to productive client voice and a shift from low to intermediate experiencing and (b) that therapist task-specific interventions directed toward resolution facilitated shifts to high experiencing. This task-focused approach to sequential analyses has the potential to yield clinically and theoretically relevant findings.