Bridging the gap between therapy research and practice in a person-centered/experiential therapy training program : the Leuven systematic case study research protocol

The goal of the Leuven Systematic Case Study Research Protocol project is to stimulate practice-oriented research in order to bridge the gap between research and practice. In this article we give a progress report of the project, in which a set of Dutch-language research instruments was created and tested with postgraduate trainees in person-centered/experiential therapy at the University Leuven (Belgium). We begin by presenting the general framework for the protocol, including the three major domains of therapy process, therapy outcome, and client/therapist characteristics. Then we give an overview of the quantitative and qualitative instruments used. We explain how the project has been implemented in the postgraduate program. To evaluate the success of the project, we analyzed the answers of our trainees on a questionnaire. We give an overview of the clinical cases involved and the variety of research questions that have been formulated in the individual case studies. Finally we discuss the value of this pilot project

World Congress for Existential Therapy ‘Freedom, Responsibility and the Meaning of Being’

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Posttraumatic Growth during Incarceration: A Case Study from an Experiential-Existential Perspective

Life after a traumatic experience is never easy. This is certainly the case for victims. For many offenders, committing a crime might be a traumatic experience as well, and incarceration may confront them even more with the consequences of their deeds. Humanistic therapies are very suitable for encouraging clients to embark on an explicit meaning-making process. In this article, we explore with a case study how experiential–existential therapy can foster meaning making and posttraumatic growth in prisoners. With Diana, we started with identifying her global meanings, which had been threatened by her own actions. The therapy offered her a safe nonjudgmental space where she could learn to explore all aspects of the crime she committed and its consequences. By processing her past in an experiential mode, she generated new meanings about herself, about others and about the meaning and purpose of her own life. Diana found new ways to meet her basic existential needs. She developed a more nuanced set of meanings and a richer pallet of coping skills that enable her to live her life in a more meaningful and in a better adjusted way.status: publishe

Coping Strategies and Posttraumatic Growth in Prison

© 2018, © 2018 SAGE Publications. Recent qualitative studies have highlighted posttraumatic growth as a profound change in offenders’ self-perception, relationship qualities, purposes, and meaning in life. We examined coping strategies as possible predictors of posttraumatic growth during incarceration in a sample of 365 prisoners. Coping strategies such as seeking emotional support, religious coping, and searching for meaning predicted posttraumatic growth in a positive way. Psychotherapy and chaplaincy were associated with higher levels of posttraumatic growth. Behavioral disengagement predicted posttraumatic growth in a negative way.status: publishe

Ten Prisoners on a Search for Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Loss and Growth During Incarceration

Ten prisoners describe how their crime and incarceration challenged them to change in profound ways. Feelings of loss, guilt, shame, and despair accompanied their experience of being dehumanized by guards and rejected by former friends. The participants in this qualitative study coped with their despair primarily with social and emotional support, and a search for new meaning in life. They realized that coping with prison life was a matter of choice and involved taking responsibility for their own futures. Reported areas of growth include more insight into their own personal story, higher levels of self-worth, new found strengths, a more nuanced way of thinking, new relational skills, and a changed meaning in lifestatus: publishe

Forgiveness, Ego-Integrity, and Depressive Symptoms in Community Dwelling and Residential Elderly Adults

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed first, to investigate the relation between forgivingness and depressive symptoms in elderly individuals and second, to explore whether the developmental task of integrity/despair is a possible underlying process in this relation. Both aims were studied in a sample of community-dwelling elderly individuals as well as in a sample of residential elderly individuals. METHODS: Community-dwelling elderly individuals (n = 280, M = 75.98 years) and residential elderly individuals (n = 205, M = 83.20 years) in Belgium filled out questionnaires on forgivingness, depressive symptoms, and the developmental task of integrity/despair. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediational role of integrity/despair in the relation between forgivingness and depression in both samples. Furthermore, multigroup analyses tested the convergence of the mediational models in the community-dwelling elderly individuals and the residential elderly individuals. RESULTS: Forgivingness and depression were negatively associated in both residential elderly individuals and community-dwelling elderly individuals. The developmental task of finding integrity and avoiding despair showed to be a significant mediator in this relationship. DISCUSSION: Framed within a life-span perspective, we showed that the developmental task of finding a balance between integrity and despair is an important intrapersonal mechanism through which forgivingness is related with depressed feelings for residential as well as community-dwelling elderly individuals.status: publishe

Empathy in psychotherapy: Dialogue and embodied understanding

In this chapter, we present an account of empathy in psychotherapy that is based on a more general, multidisciplinary understanding of everyday empathic interaction. We want to argue that, for two reasons, this approach can contribute to a better understanding of processes of empathy in the therapeutic context. Neurological studies and social psychology research have demonstrated the power and complexity of interpersonal influence on a physical, nonverbal level, a complexity that is sometimes ignored by therapists (Shaw, 2004). Examples of such influences are emotional contagion (e.g., Preston & de Waal, 2002) and automatic vigilance (Wentura, Rothermund, & Bak, 2000). Second, understanding problems in client-therapist interaction requires us to examine how clients both understand and misunderstand their therapists, including their therapists’ intentions, emotions, and other internal states (e.g., Rhodes et al., 1994). These problems are grasped with more coherence when they are described using parallel concepts for the client and the therapist. For example, it is easier to understand and tackle severe communication problems in psychosis treatment when both the client’s and the therapist’s “sides” of the communication are considered (Peters, 2005).status: publishe

Bruggen slaan tussen klinische praktijk en onderzoek

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Profiles of meaning and search for meaning among prisoners

Meaning in life and searching for meaning are central in how people organize their lives and deal with various challenges during them. Studies on meaning and the search for meaning among prisoners are virtually nonexistent. Based on the presence of meaning in their lives and on their search for meaning, we discovered four different profiles in a sample of 365 prisoners: High Presence High Search, High Presence Low Search, Low Presence High Search, and Low Presence Low Search. Compared to prisoners with low meaning profiles, those whose profiles were marked by higher levels of meaning displayed less distress, more positive world assumptions, and higher levels of self-worth. They also show more empathy for others. Older prisoners and prisoners who were sexually abused during childhood were more represented in the profile that was marked by extremely low levels of meaning and low levels of search for meaning.peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rpos20status: publishe

Posttraumatic growth in sex offenders: A pilot study with mixed-method design

In recent qualitative studies, posttraumatic growth has been highlighted as a possible sign of change in how offenders relate to their basic existential needs. In this article, we present results of a pilot study with a mixed-method design on posttraumatic growth and psychological stress in a sample of sexual offenders ( n = 30) in ongoing therapy. We performed univariate analyses and subsequent hierarchical analyses, and the results affirmed our hypothesis that posttraumatic growth is negatively associated with psychological stress. We used phenomenological analysis to identify themes in the participants' reflections on posttraumatic growth. We found that prison experiences forced the participants to change. Prisoners experience emotional support from others during incarceration as crucial to positive change. Taking responsibility for the crime helped them engage in the therapy more fully and resulted in more posttraumatic growth.status: publishe