Patient early session experience and treatment outcome.

Patient Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ: Stiles, 1980) ratings from early in treatment were examined in relation to outcomes during psychodynamic psychotherapy. Twenty-eight therapists treated 73 patients at a university-based clinic. A relationship between Smoothness ratings and symptom improvement approached statistical significance using bivariate correlations and multilevel analyses. A significant relationship was found between Positivity ratings and a broad scale of patient-rated functional improvement across many domains (i.e., psychopathology, interpersonal, occupational, and social) before and after accounting for therapist effects.