"Just like talking to someone about like shit in your life and stuff, and they help you": Hopes and expectations for therapy among depressed adolescents.

Objective: To explore hopes and expectations for therapy among a clinical population of depressed adolescents.

Method: As part of a randomized clinical trial, 77 adolescents aged 11-17, with moderate to severe depression, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. The interviews were analysed qualitatively using framework analysis.

Results: The findings are reported around five themes: "the difficulty of imagining what will happen in therapy," "the 'talking cure,'" "the therapist as doctor," "therapy as a relationship," and "regaining the old self or developing new capacities."

Conclusions: Differing expectations are likely to have implications for the way young people engage with treatment, and failure to identify these expectations may lead to a risk of treatment breakdown.