ABSTRACT
Therapists obtained significantly higher empathy scores with patients of the opposite sex than with those of the same sex, but this difference disappeared by the end of therapy because empathy for clients of like sex increased significantly over the course of treatment. Several researches on the premature termination of psychotherapy have dealt peripherally with the issue of the therapist's sex. Working with a large sample of experienced therapists representing psychiatry, psychology, and social work, they found that more women than men endorsed an impersonal directive approach. The therapists were sixty-three resident psychiatrists classified as Type A, B, or neither by four methods all derived from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank. The psychotherapeutic relationship is so personal that "who" the psychotherapist is may be confounded with what he does. Therapist conflicts were ascertained by significant discrepancies between own-self ratings on sixteen personality traits and ratings of the therapist by judges.
