When Psychological Therapy Is Unsuccessful: A Grounded Theory Of Clients' Experiences Reveals "the Client's Helical Path"

In this significant departure from and contribution to the existing psychotherapy research literature, Shaw employs a grounded theory methodology to guide the collection and analysis of interview data from clients who report unsuccessful therapy experiences. Shaw ultimately puts forth "The Client's Helical Path" as a theoretical model that subsumes four subcategories: Embarking, Evaluating, Ending, and Familiarity. Clients Embark upon a course of therapy with certain expectations; they later Evaluate their experience on the basis of these expectations; they End therapy when it is adjudicated as not sufficiently successful. Clients' Familiarity with therapy is enhanced with each successive experience, and this familiarity implicates clients' subsequent Expectations, Evaluations, and Endings. The theory contextualizes clients' experiences of unsuccessful therapy at the level of the individual, rather at the level of the course of therapy, thereby providing an understanding for how past therapy experiences influence future ones. Shaw provides multiple credibility checks for his theory.