Exploring an Alternative Option for Clinical Research

Abstract

Although many attempts have been made to refine and develop traditional research methods to meet the needs of clinicians, such endeavours have frequently met with further criticism about methodological inadequacies. The purpose of this paper is to explore an alternative option for clinical research free from some of the traditional restraints of the scientific method. A case example is provided where the core events in the psychotherapeutic process and their related outcomes become the focus for research enquiry following a research design proposed by Auerswald (1987). Other clinicians are invited to consider the legitimacy of the researcher's construction of the key events and related outcomes in the psychotherapeutic research process and to apply the distinctions made by the researchers to their experiences of the particular problem.