Thirty-eight clients undergoing fifteen sessions of emotive-reconstructive therapy were divided into two groups (“feeling-expressive” and “non-feeling expressive”) according to therapist ratings of their expression of feelings in the first session of therapy. These ratings were predictive of therapy outcome as reflected in the increase of positive self-attributions on a self-report measure, the semantic differential. Generally, the first session's expression of feelings by clients thus predicted a significantly more positive outcome than the non-expression of feelings. Some implications for therapy and research are discussed.
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