ABSTRACT
Psychotherapeutic process research examines how processes in therapy unfold either through direct observation of therapy or through asking clients and therapists to report on their experiences. This chapter looks at the vital role this kind of research can have for clinical practice, primarily focusing on the research of Leslie Greenberg, illuminating processes in experiential therapy. Greenberg views a goal of this kind of analysis of the process of treatment as akin to building a periodic table of basic elements of psychotherapeutic process. Psychotherapy process may be studied in at least two different ways. In the simpler method, clients or therapists complete questionnaires describing what occurs in therapy and how they feel about the process. Alternatively, actual tapes of therapy sessions can be transcribed and coded for their content and emotional climate. Although funding for research into the process of therapy is limited, it must increase if one is ever to become a more empirically driven enterprise.
