Evaluation and description in measures of psychotherapy session impact on clients

Clients' evaluations of their sessions were prominent in factor-based indexes of session impact derived from the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) and the Session Impacts Scale (SIS) in a large sample (N = 2,414 sessions with 218 clients). One or both of the SEQ's independent session evaluation indexes, Depth and Smoothness, were highly correlated with SEQ's postsession Positivity and Good Therapist indexes and with the SIS's Understanding, Problem Solving, and Relationship indexes, as well as with single-item global evaluation scales, Good–Bad and Helpful–Hindering. Only the SEQ's postsession Arousal index and the SIS's single-item Unwanted Thoughts index appeared to be primarily descriptive rather than evaluative. The SIS's Hindering Impacts index's items were endorsed infrequently but might usefully flag problematic sessions.