Therapist complementarity as a function of experience and client stimuli.

Assessed degree of therapist (TP) complementarity (CMP), an interpersonal communication strategy, in 67 TPs' responses to client statements (CSTs) that varied on 3 dimensions (directness, power, and type of affect as it varied over TP experience level). TPs at all experience levels responded similarly to different types of CSTs. CMP was lowest in response to hostile-dominant CSTs and highest in response to hostile-submissive CSTs. Differences in CMP were found across levels of experience toward direct and indirect CSTs. Professional TPs were significantly more likely to respond to indirect client statements with lower CMP than were student TPs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)