(PS10-58) The ideal Therapist: How Personality Guides Client Preferences

Understanding client preferences for therapist characteristics is crucial for fostering therapeutic alliance and optimizing treatment outcomes. Prior research suggests that individuals may prefer therapists whose traits align with their own personality profiles (Anestis et al., 2021), yet the extent to which personality influences these preferences remains unclear. This study examines how client personality traits, particularly those from the Big Five model (i.e., agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion) predict their ideal therapist characteristics within the same framework.

Participants (n = 95) completed the NEO-PI-3 (Costa & McCrae, 1992) to assess their personality traits and rated the desirability and importance of therapist traits using a comparable measure. Each therapist trait (e.g., cheerful, reserved, nervous) was transformed into a bipolar importance rating scale ranging from -5 (highly undesirable and critical to avoid) to +5 (highly desirable and extremely important). Linear regression analyses examined the relations between participant personality traits and their ideal therapist characteristics, while controlling for age, gender, and previous therapy experience.

Regression analyses revealed that client personality traits significantly predicted therapist preferences, even after controlling for demographic factors and therapy experience. Clients high in agreeableness preferred therapists who were also agreeable (b = 0.43, p < .001) and were more likely to avoid neurotic therapists (b = -0.27, p = .03). On the other hand, clients high in neuroticism, were more likely to prefer agreeable therapists (b = 0.15, p = .03). Clients high in openness strongly preferred open therapists (b = 0.48, p < .001). Extraversion predicted a preference for extraverted therapists (b = 0.18, p = .03), while conscientious clients sought therapists who were also conscientious (b = 0.21, p = .01) and agreeable (b = 0.16, p = .02).

This study provides evidence that client personality influences their preferences for therapist traits, with distinct patterns emerging for agreeableness, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness. Rather than broadly accepting various therapist traits, clients exhibit selectivity, prioritizing traits that align with their own personality or their interpersonal needs. The inclusion of age, gender, and previous therapy experience as controls suggests that these preferences are not solely shaped by demographic factors. These findings have implications for therapist-client matching, potentially improving therapeutic alliance and treatment engagement. Future research should explore how these preferences affect therapy outcomes across diverse clinical populations.