A method for analyzing therapist interventions in the psychotherapy of borderline patients.

The authors developed a method for studying the therapist’s use of technique in responding to specific patient themes during treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder. This method can monitor the use of expressive and supportive techniques as well as the congruence between patients’ theme categories and the direction of the therapist’s interventions. The method was developed to monitor adherence to an operationally defined treatment approach for psychodynamic psychotherapy of borderline patients. Data are presented on interrater agreement obtained with this method and on its application to 12 psychotherapy sessions.