Circling Science

The effects of relationship and progress feedback in group psychotherapy using the Group Questionnaire and Outcome Questionnaire–45: A randomized clinical trial

Gary M. Burlingame, Kaitlyn E. Whitcomb, Sean C. Woodland, Joseph A. Olsen, Mark E. Beecher and Robert Gleave · 2018

Evidence
Randomised trial
Kind
Journal article
peer-reviewed
Method
Randomised trial: each leader ran two groups at once, one with progress feedback alone and one with relationship feedback added
Sample
58 groups with 430 patients enrolled; 374 came to at least five sessions
Published
Psychotherapy, 55(2), 116–131
Practices
Group psychotherapy

Adjacent

Studies a related practice or mechanism, without testing Circling.

Adding feedback on members’ relationships in the group to feedback on their progress turned deteriorating relationships around and cut how often they failed. Effects on symptoms were mixed.

Routine outcome monitoring measures clients as therapy goes on, to flag those at risk of doing badly. Group therapy patients were randomly assigned to two versions of it: progress feedback alone (the Outcome Questionnaire-45), or progress feedback plus feedback on relationships in the group (the Group Questionnaire). Each leader ran a group of each kind at the same time. Stronger relationships predicted better outcomes, and relationship feedback reversed relationships that were getting worse and made relationship failure rarer. On symptoms the two arms split: the combined arm had fewer patients who got worse, the progress-only arm more who improved.

The Stanford study found that leaders were poor judges of who was being hurt (Yalom & Lieberman (1971)). This trial tests a routine way to bring trouble in a group’s relationships into view, one a circle could borrow.

What it doesn’t show

Professionally led therapy groups for patients, not Circling. Relationship feedback made no difference to attendance or dropout. Burlingame and two co-authors developed the Group Questionnaire it tests.

Summary based on the abstract.

Directions that build on it

  1. Safety, facilitation and harm

    Builds on 14 works · 3 funding routes

    What makes a circle safe, and what goes wrong when it isn’t?

Links

Cite

Burlingame, G. M., Whitcomb, K. E., Woodland, S. C., Olsen, J. A., Beecher, M. E., & Gleave, R. (2018). The effects of relationship and progress feedback in group psychotherapy using the Group Questionnaire and Outcome Questionnaire–45: A randomized clinical trial. Psychotherapy, 55(2), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000133