Message from you (the therapist enrolled in the study)

to clients who might be interested in participating

 

​

Dear Client,

 

In my ongoing desire to:

• continue to improve as a therapist by keeping on top of the latest counseling research, and

• contribute to scientific advancements in the field,

 

I will be participating in a randomized control trial (scientific study) to test a new kind of therapeutic intervention over the course of 5 weeks.

 

To this end, I am asking my clients if they would like to participate. The creator of this study received her PhD in Counseling from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL in August of 2022 and is curently continuing her research.

 

Just like medical products and treatments are trialed first to see if they work, therapeutic interventions are also tested, and your participation will help to contribute to the body of knowledge which exists on the subject of counseling and client wellness.  So basically, we're talking 'Scientific Brownie Points,' for both of us!

 

As with most scientific studies, in order to find out if this new therapeutic intervention works, it is important to compare potential improvements in therapy between two groups of clients, meaning:

• one group which receives the intervention which is being tested

• another group which does not receive the intervention, and instead receives treatment as usual (commonly known as the 'control' group).

 

This means that once I hand in the list of clients who would like to participate, the FAU researcher will randomly assign half of them to the intervention group and half to the control group.

 

The 5 sessions of the study will be named Session 1, 2, 3, 4and 5. Clients in both the intervention and control groups will be asked to fill out two quick forms during Session 1 and Session 5 (taking only 5 to 10 minutes each time). This data will allow the researcher to compare the two groups.

 

If you are randomly assigned into the intervention group, then:

Over the course of the next four sessions that you and I have, I will be weaving in a new and exciting treatment modality into our sessions. This means that during this time we will continue to work on the issues that we have been working on, just in a different way.

 

If you are randomly assigned into the treatment as usual (control) group, then:

Over the course of the next five sessions that you and I have, we will then continue with our regularly scheduled sessions and will not change anything about them.

 

As the intervention relates to the subject of communication in therapy, the researcher asked me to only enroll clients who are NOT fluent in Sign Language. If you wish to participate, please confirm to me that this is indeed the case.

 

NEXT STEP: If you would like to participate, let me know so we can get started! 

 

Best regards,

 

 

(name of therapist)