Defining the characteristics of an effective psychological therapist for people with intellectual disability and mental health problems: a Q-sort study

There is little consensus regarding what constitutes an effective therapist when working with adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) who have a mental health problem. This study aims to explore whether clusters of clinical psychologists (CPs) could be differentiated with regards to beliefs as to what defines an effective therapist for adults with ID experiencing psychological distress and seeking treatment.

Four interviews with CPs and an associated thematic analysis created the 49-item Q-set. These items were then sorted into a forced quasi-normal distribution by N = 27 CPs via an online Q-sorting task.

Three participant clusters were identified in the principal components analysis that accounted for 49% of the variance. These clusters were labelled the creative collaborator, the reflective expert and the system integrator.

Differences exist regarding beliefs as to what the psychotherapeutic approaches effective therapists working with ID and comorbid mental health problems should take. These differences approximated to preferred psychological therapy models. This study is critiqued to enable future research on this topic to progress.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore what constitutes an effective psychological therapist for people who have ID.