Significant Events in Psychotherapy—Reliability and Distribution of Categories of Client and Therapist Identified Significant Events

ABSTRACT Objective The aim of this study was to examine whether meta‐categories of client‐experienced impacts of significant events (SEs) in psychotherapy sessions, synthesised by Ladmanová and colleagues, are suitable for categorising and analysing SEs in routine psychotherapy at a university training clinic, and how these were distributed among clients and therapists. Methods Data from 23 client‐therapist dyads at a Danish university clinic were analysed. Both clients and therapists completed the Helpful Aspects of Therapy form and the free text answers were used to categorise SEs. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the prevalence of different types of SEs. Results Most of the meta‐categories for helpful SEs were represented in our dataset. The most common type of helpful SEs, mentioned by both clients and therapists, involved clients gaining new perspectives, feeling empowered, feeling understood, and developing new coping strategies. Few meta‐categories represented most of the data. Very few unhelpful SEs were mentioned; hence, they could not be categorised with adequate reliability. Conclusion Adequate reliability in the coding of meta‐categories is promising and the distribution of SEs aligns with broader theory on common factors in psychotherapy process research. The finding that few meta‐categories represent most of the data points could alternatively point to a need for further refining of existing meta‐categories.