Request for Research Participation:
Cheetahs on the Couch

In addition to my educational therapy work with people who are gifted and twice-exceptional, I am also a doctoral student in clinical psychology. For my research project, I am doing an exploratory study about the quality of the working relationships gifted clients experience in psychotherapy. My goal is to help therapists better understand how to work with these clients.

If you consider yourself cognitively gifted and have ever been in individual or family psychotherapy, whether for reasons related to your intelligence or not, I am interested in hearing your story about your experience of the therapeutic relationship. You can share your story by filling out an open-ended questionnaire, and some participants will also be selected for telephone or video-chat interviews.

Children and adolescents can participate, with permission of a parent, but must be able to provide their own first-person narratives.

All responses will be treated as confidential.

Only responses received by 31 March 2010 will be included in the doctoral project. However, I will continue to collect data until 31 January 2011, to enrich the data set for possible future publications. As a thank-you, participants responding by 31 March will be eligible to receive one of three $25 Amazon.com gift certificates in a random drawing.

For more detailed information, click here to download the informed consent file and the participant questionnaire, contact me, or keep reading below.

Informed Consent Form: Cheetahs on the Couch

Welcome! This is an exploratory survey about the quality of the working relationships gifted clients experience in psychotherapy. It is being conducted by Aimee Yermish, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. I am also an educational therapist specializing in work with people who are gifted and twice-exceptional. The study has been approved by the MSPP Human Research Committee. Responses for the current study will be gathered until 31 March 2010. Responses can be submitted after that date, until 31 January 2011, to enrich the data set for possible future publications.

What are you doing?

Research has shown that the quality of the working alliance between a client and a therapist is crucial for the progress of therapy. The alliance includes feeling that your therapist understands you, is honest about him/herself, is nonjudgmental, and can come to some basic agreement with you about what the problem is and what you will do about it together. It is also important that you and the therapist deal with problems in the relationship as they come up.

Little research has been done on how gifted clients experience the therapeutic relationship. In this study, I will ask you to describe how you have experienced the working alliance in your own therapy, and how your experience might have affected the course of your therapy. My goal is to help therapists better understand how to work effectively with clients like you.

Will you protect my privacy?

Yes. All responses will be treated as confidential. You do not have to give your full name, location, or any other personally identifying information. All identifying information that you provide as part of the contact process will be removed from the data set. All data will be maintained in password-protected files, with the computer under lock and key at all times. Any stories or quotes from the data used for illustrative purposes in research reports will be carefully anonymized to protect your privacy.

Any contact information you provide will be kept in a separate password-protected file and will be used only for the purpose(s) you designate. It will not be considered part of the study data, and will not be disclosed to anyone else.

Because of the open-ended nature of the questions, it is possible (although highly unlikely) that some of what you choose to disclose may not be able to be kept confidential. If I suspect that a child, elderly, or disabled person is in danger of abuse or neglect, I am legally required in all 50 states of the USA to promptly inform local authorities. Additionally, if a person is actively suicidal or homicidal, I am required to take action to help keep him or her safe.

How long will this take?

To answer the questions will typically take about an hour, although the length of time you spend is up to you. You are free to answer in as much or as little depth as you like, to leave out any questions you do not wish to answer, to stop participating in the study at any time, or to withdraw part or all of the data you have already given. There will be no negative consequences for your choice to withdraw.

If you give consent and provide contact information, I may contact you to help me understand your responses. I may also contact you for an in-depth telephone or video-chat interview, which will last approximately one hour and be scheduled at your convenience.

What's in it for me?

Besides the warm-and-fuzzy feeling I hope you will get from contributing to this much-neglected area of the field, you will also be entered into a random drawing for one of three $25 gift certificates to Amazon.com.

Who can participate?

In order to be part of this study, you must meet both of the following criteria:

• be identified as cognitively gifted. Typical means of formal identification include IQ tests, talent search results, participation in gifted programs, grade-skipping, subject acceleration, early participation in college courses, membership in high-IQ clubs, and so on. However, there are many different ways in which high intelligence may manifest, both in and out of school. Many very smart people, especially those from minority or underprivileged backgrounds, and those whose talents manifest in domains that are not traditionally tested, have never been formally identified or served. The aim of this study is to be inclusionary; if you think of yourself as gifted, if your teachers thought of you as gifted, if everyone in your family thinks you are gifted, or if you think everyone else in your family is gifted, you probably qualify.


• currently be, or in the past have been, even briefly, a client in individual or family psychotherapy (including family therapy where someone else (e.g., your child) was the "person with the problem"). Issues related to your intelligence do not have to have been part of why you were in therapy.

Children or adolescents (under age 18 at present) may participate, but must be capable of providing their own firsthand narratives. Adults should not discuss questions or responses with children or adolescent respondents. If a child's report must be dictated to a caregiver, please indicate this fact clearly on the response. Children and adolescents should report only on past therapeutic relationships, not on current therapy.

Are you being straight with me?

No deception is involved in this study.

What are the risks?

The study involves no more than minimal risk to you (i.e., the level of risk encountered in everyday life). Because I am asking you to describe your experiences in therapy, you may find that it brings up intense or unpleasant memories.

What if I have more questions?

If you have any further questions about this study or about the rights of participants, if you wish to lodge a complaint or a concern, or if you wish to be informed when results of this research are published, you may contact the principal investigator, Aimee Yermish.

You may also contact this project's faculty chair, Dr. Wynn Schwartz, or the Human Research Committee at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 617-327-6777).

I'd love to help out! How do I get started?

You can participate in one of three ways:

• Hard copy: Contact me, providing your name and address, and I will send you a hard copy printout of the interview questions, which you can fill out and mail back.


• Email: Contact me, providing your email address, and I will send you the interview questions as a Word document, which you can fill out and return by email.


• Online: Click here to download the informed consent form and interview questions.

Thank you very much!