The creation of the client reflexivity scale: A measure of minute fluctuations in self-awareness and exploration.

OBJECTIVE

to design and pilot a reliable observer-based scale of client reflexivity that can be used on short segments of time ("coding intervals") across therapy sessions. Reflexivity was defined as the level of a client's awareness and exploration of his or her interiority. Interiority was defined as thoughts, feelings, sensations, intentions, and desires.

METHOD

The Client Reflexivity Scale (CRS) was designed through the coding of public access therapy videos featuring demonstrations of therapy. Along with the Experiencing Scale, the CRS was then piloted on one good outcome and one poor outcome session of cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety. Each session of therapy featured the same therapist but different clients. Two raters coded the sessions.

RESULTS

Weighted kappas for inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.74 to 0.81. The level of reflexivity was significantly higher in the good outcome session than the poor outcome session, though the trajectory of reflexivity for both sessions was the same. The CRS was also compared to the Experiencing Scale in order to determine similarities and differences between the scales.

CONCLUSIONS

the CRS reliably measured reflexivity within the therapy sessions, and in the future can be layered with other process measures in order to map interactions across therapy sessions.