Preferred Name
Danilo Salli
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3544-261X
Date of Graduation
5-15-2025
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Educational Specialist (EdS)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
First Advisor
Kenson Hiatt
Second Advisor
Renee Staton
Abstract
Whether it manifests as premature dropout from therapy or unsuccessful long-term treatment, psychotherapy does not work for everybody who engages in it. The current paper aimed to synthesize and compare information regarding premature dropout and treatment failure from the perspectives of the two parties who participate in psychotherapeutic treatment: therapists and clients. Eight main studies were used in the literature review, each focusing on either/both therapist’s and/or client’s perspectives of the reasons for premature dropout or treatment failure. The current paper concluded that communication between therapists and clients is key to reducing unsatisfactory results in psychotherapy and presented a list of recommendations for limiting the barriers to success reported by both therapists and clients. Further research that diversifies its participant pool and explicitly compares these two perspectives is needed.
