SPST Debriefing
Thanks for using the Scarsdale Psychotherapy Self-Test. We hope you enjoyed the experience, and learned from it. Please stop to leave a comment. What did you think of the SPST? Do you have suggestions for improvement? What kind of therapy were you evaluating? Do you feel that the SPST worked for your kind of therapy? We appreciate your feedback.
–Jeffery Smith, MD
The way the questions were formatted were a little difficult to understand sometimes on Pg 2 and 3, eg Something like: ’safety expressing emotions’. Then you explained that if you did not feel safe expressing emotions that was bad (sorry I can’t remember the exact wording). If I did not feel safe expressing emotions in therapy should I put 0 ( ie I felt 0% safe) or 100 (Ie I felt 100 % unsafe). I think it would have been better to have the full sentence Eg ‘I feel safe expressing emotions’
Thanks so much for your comment. I will review the wording and try to make it clear. 100% should always be good.
Hi
Thanks for your email re the wording of the Scarsdale test. When I did it the second time it did seem easier.
However I still found myself going to the top to the page the clarify the statement eg ‘Avoid setting bad precedents’ then became ‘The therapist should avoid setting bad precedents’ My instant response was 100% ( I agree the therapist SHOULD avoid setting bad precedents.)
However on further thought the statement became ‘The therapist DID avoid setting bad precedents’ To which my response was 20%
Ie I found some confusion at first between what should happen and what did happen.
Also not sure if test would flow better in question format rather than statement format Eg Eg ‘Did the therapist avoid setting bad precedents ?’ With the ‘Yes 100%’ or ‘No 0%’ as possible answers.
I found your explanations of what should happen in therapy EXTREMELY helpful, as for a long time (I was in therapy for 10 months) I was blaming myself for not being honest with my therapist about my intense anger at him for constantly skirting the issues and emotions I wanted to deal with. Your explanations helped me see that I was not dishonest, all by myself. There was a lot of subtle pressure. Thank you so much.
Kind regards
Michele
Fun test….the only thing that was hard was considering the fact that I need a lot of therapy, some of the questions were hard to answer. Such as, it felt right the first few sessions. Well, I happen to know myself well enough that it wasn’t fair to give him a mediocre ratings. I base this on the idea that I have seen other therapists and have had the same intense fear reaction. So, maybe it would be possible to put a small area for brief comments at each question so the score can be more accurately judged by someone not knowing any circumstances that may be involved in answering some of the questions. That said, I do have a therapist that ROCKS! I have made immense progress. Thank you for your interest in the opinions of the client/patient. I appreciate it!
Dear Patricia,
Thanks so much for your comments. I’m sure there are many times when individual circumstances aren’t adequately taken into account in these items. I will use your thoughts in the next version. Yours, JS
Hi, I’m having difficulty with the rating bar. On the first two questions, i could easily use the bar to rate. Then on the following questions, when i moved my cursor over the bar, it wouldn’t move. I’d like to complete the test but I’m having technical difficulties. Thanks!