Planning the treatment of a depressed patient

In this paper we present a study of psychotherapeutic treatment planning. By using a process-tracing approach, we were able to gain insight into the nature and the sequence of the considerations that psychotherapists have when they are asked to propose an intervention method for a depressed patient. The results of our study suggest formal similarities: the therapists all gave an interpretation of the patient and his complaints and they all focused on one treatment option, for which they found support in the case description. But the aspects emphasized in the therapists' interpretations were quite dissimilar as were the eventual decisions, We were unable to find a satisfactory explanation for these dissimilarities in our data, but we discuss some possibilities. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.