A pilot study of the Italian adaptation of the Session Evaluation Questionnaire fourth version

Abstract The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) evaluates the impact of counselling and psychotherapy sessions; it may be conceived as a bridge between psychotherapy process and outcome. SEQ is a self-report tool asking patients about their experience with the clinical session just ended; it consists of 27 adjectives in semantic differential scale, divided into three thematic parts: evaluation of the session itself, feelings after the session, and evaluation of the therapist. Even if the original American SEQ has been translated into many languages, only a few translations have been validated. This is a pilot study, which attempted to replicate the five-dimensional structure of the fourth version of the Anglo-American SEQ, for the Italian population. Data were collected on 111 outpatients attending the Psychological Assistance Service (SAP-Dynamic Psychotherapy Service) of Padua University, after their first two clinical interviews. Exploratory factor analyses (PCA with varimax rotation) were performed on each of the three parts of the SEQ. Results confirmed the original factorial structure, showing a substantial agree for Depth, Smoothness, Positivity and Arousal dimensions; Good Therapist dimension overlapped perfectly with the original one. The Italian SEQ showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas ranged .65 to .86 for the five subscales). Convergent validity measured with an index of perceived satisfaction in the counselling process, showed significant positive correlations with Good Therapist, Depth and Positivity scores. The preliminary results of this pilot study show that the Italian SEQ results in a reliable instrument to measure the impact of clinical sessions. Of course, validation studies are needed, especially to replicate the factor structure of the instrument and to better assess its validity.