Grady, Jacqueline, Dean, Suzanne ORCID: 0000-0003-0355-2727, Godfrey, Celia, Beaufoy, Jeanette, Pullen, Jill, Hill, Christine, Ivey, Gavin ORCID: 0000-0002-5537-3504 and Tonge, Bruce ORCID: 0000-0002-4236-9688 (2023) The Melbourne Study of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy III: Patients' and psychotherapists’ perspectives on progress and challenges. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 20 (4). pp. 596-618. ISSN 1742-3341

Abstract

Qualitative exploration of the experience of psychoana-lytic psychotherapy complemented the quantitative eval-uation of mental health and life functioning improvements in the Melbourne Study of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Twice-weekly treatment was offered to adults for 2years by the private sector Glen Nevis Clinic for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, established by the Victorian Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists as a subsidized, low-cost community service over 8years. This paper is the second of two presenting the qualitative arm of the study, involv-ing in-depth narrative interviews with patients and psycho-therapists. Analysis of 143 transcripts further contributes to evidence of the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Imple-men tation and Maintenance of psychoanalytic psycho-therapy in a community setting. The first qualitative paper reports themes concerning patient expectations of psycho-therapy and perspectives of both patients and psychother-apists on the experience and benefits of the treatment. This paper reports what was perceived by participants as facili-tative or challenging for therapeutic progress, illuminating how experiences of the nature of psychoanalytic psycho-therapy may have affected the Implementation, Effectivenessand Maintenance of the program. The most notable facilita-tive factors emerging were the exploratory, insight-oriented nature of the work, elements of the patient-psychotherapist relationship, and the frame of the treatment. Challenges were also often seen as inherent to Effectiveness; however, proposing the frame of 2-year treatment, as both an expecta-tion and a limit, probably inhibited program Reach, Adoptionand overall Implementation. The limitations and strengths of the qualitative arm of the research, together with implica-tions for further investigation, are discussed.

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