ABSTRACT
The traditions of objective personality assessment and psychotherapeutic intervention have been somewhat estranged from one another throughout much of their respective existences. This separation may be a by-product of attitudes holding that the act of incorporating test data into the psychotherapeutic process may somehow unnecessarily bias therapists against their clients and thereby be detrimental to both treatment process and outcome. It has been only recently that assessment principles began to be incorporated into the treatment planning process. Over the past several decades, theorists have proposed the use of a variety of models for the purpose of treatment planning, such as Lazarus' (1981,1989) multimodal therapy, Beutler's and Harwood's (1995) systematic treatment planning, and Makover's (1992) hierarchical treatment planning; however, the assessment processes that these procedures necessitate are not always delineated in substantial detail, and there are often few provisions for how to obtain the needed information in a reliable manner (Perry, 1999). It is here that the benefit of objective assessment procedures becomes apparent, and there are several measures intended to expedite the treatment planning process. Some of these are specific to individual disorders or diagnostic groups. Others, such as the Butcher Treatment Planning Inventory (BTPI; Butcher, 1998), are intended to address a variety of client issues and psychological problems. The BTPI was created for the purpose of "incorporating objectively derived, self-report information into the treatment process when a tactical therapeutic approach is being formulated and time is crucial" and is intended to "aid the therapist in obtaining, organizing, and employing relevant personality and symptomatic information early in the treatment process" (Butcher, 1998, p. xiii).
