Convergence in client and counselor recall of important session events

The authors examined convergence of clients' and counselors' recall of important session events by comparing client and counselor Critical Incident Questionnaires (CIQs) from 27 counseling dyads. In addition, clients reported interpersonal problems before and after counseling. Trained judges rated matched pairs of CIQs for similarity of change mechanisms and content. Individual growth modeling was conducted with the Hierarchical Linear Model program. Results showed that (a) convergence of client and counselor recall of important therapeutic events increased linearly over time, and (b) increasing convergence was related to counseling outcomes, as measured by a decrease in interpersonal problems. Implications for counseling practice and future research are discussed.