An investigation of client mood in the initial and final sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy

Objective: Our aim was to examine client mood in the initial and final sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy (PIT) and to determine how client mood is related to therapy outcomes. Methods: Hierarchical linear modeling was applied to data from a clinical trial comparing CBT with PIT. In this trial, client mood was assessed before and after sessions with the Session Evaluation Questionnaire-Positivity Subscale (SEQ-P). Results: In the initial sessions, CBT clients had higher pre-session and post-session SEQ-P ratings and greater pre-to-post session mood change than did clients in PIT. In the final sessions, these pre, post, and change scores were generally equivalent across CBT and PIT. CBT outcome was predicted by pre- and post-session SEQ-P ratings from both the initial sessions and the final sessions of CBT. However, PIT outcome was predicted by pre- and post-session SEQ-P ratings from the final sessions only. Pre-to-post session mood change was unrelated to outcome in both treatments. Conclusions: These results suggest different change processes are at work in CBT and PIT.