Common Factors: Client Expectations

What Are Common Factors?

Common factors are important factors or ingredients that make therapy and the therapist effective based on research.

These factors can be incorporated into any therapeutic treatment approach/model/framework.

Why Managing Client Expectations Is Important

• Clients often come to therapy during moments of distress

• Thus, they often feel pressured and overwhelmed, after attempting other methods of coping with their concerns

• The therapist should instill hope there is possibility for something new and that the current life situation can be resolved or decreased

• Clients’ expectations must be managed

  • Some clients come to treatment with a medical based framework (deficit based to get rid of symptoms entirely)

  • Some clients want to see instant results quickly in 1-2 sessions

  • Some clients expect the therapist to give them advice or tell them what to do

  • Some clients have never been to therapy before and have no idea what to expect during treatment

  • And more

• Therapists cannot promise to get rid of symptoms entirely due to ethical reasons. Often times, this is not possible due to the complexity of mental health, but can be decreased and managed.

• If expectations are not managed, this can lead to conflicts, disagreements, and ruptures

Questions To Reflect On

• How do I manage client expectations?

• What are my own feelings and thoughts when clients have expectations of me that may or may not align with my own worldviews/expectations?

• How do I work with clients presenting with high anxiety symptoms?

• How do I manage my own anxiety as a therapist?

• How do I offer clients hope?

• And more

Statements And Questions You Can Try Out

• Expectations can be managed through:

• Providing thorough education on symptoms

• Providing education on the therapeutic process and what is possible and not possible

• Providing a written and verbal treatment plan

• Validation

• Reassurance

• Answering client questions

• Provide psychoeducation on the therapeutic process and what they can expect

• Providing clients a diagnosis if they seek one or if it would help their treatment

• Provide clients with a treatment plan

• Ask clients regularly if they understand what you are talking about so you two are on the same page and if not, clarify for them

• Ask clients for feedback regularly verbally and/or through researched based methods to measure outcomes (PHQ-9, GAD-7, etc.)

• And more