Verbal Response Modes in Action:Microrelationships as the Building Blocks of Relationship Role Dimensions

Dimensions of interpersonal relationships, such as attentiveness, directiveness, and presumptuousness, have typically been assessed through impressionistic ratings or by aggregate scores derived from coding of specific (e.g., verbal) behaviors. However, the meanings of these dimensions rest on the interpersonal microrelationships that are actually observed by the raters or coders. In this qualitative study, the way these global relationship qualities were built from microrelationships at the utterance level was examined in passages from one medical interaction. Applications of microrelationships to future communications research are suggested

Convergence and Divergence of Themes in Successful Psychotherapy: An Assimilation Analysis

Theme convergence is the linking of seemingly unrelated problem domains as they advance through assimilation stages-a developmental sequence of cognitive and affective changes through which problematic content is hypothesized to pass during successful psychotherapy. Theme divergence is the contradiction or conflict of solutions to different problems, so that progress in one domain leads to stagnation or regression in another domain. An intensive qualitative method called assimilation analysis was used to examine theme convergence and divergence in a successful psychodynamic psychotherapy with a 20–yr–old female patient. Because specific problems often fail to progress monotonically, even in successful psychotherapy cases, it is suggested that clients\u27 problems cannot be resolved in isolation; instead, they may influence each other toward resolution or stagnation in complex and unpredictable ways

Hiding shame - a case study of developing agency

The hiding aspect of shame makes the study of shame difficult. In this article we aim to show through Hanna’s case study how shame manifests and develops during the course of one psychotherapy process. This will be done using Assimilation analysis (APES) and Dialogical Sequence Analysis (DSA) to show in detail one idiosyncratic developmental path through which the relationship toward the problematic shame experience changes and develops in psychotherapy. Results show how the manifestation of shame toward the problematic experience of being seen was present in the first moments of the first meeting, but also how during the sequence of sessions 7 – 9 Hanna’s relationship toward shame evoked referent unveils and developed gradually through therapeutic work from assimilation stage 2 to reaching stage 5-6 at the end of the 9th hour. This study shows how Hanna was able to reach a new kind of active agency toward the shame that, in the beginning, held the agency in her ’community of voices’, and how this understanding of shame’s developing and hiding nature can be of use in a clinically meaningful way.Peer reviewe

Retrocessos no contexto de terapia linguística de avaliação

O modelo de assimilação é um modelo integrativo que pode ser aplicado a qualquer tipo de setting terapêutico para a descrição do processo de mudança. A Escala de Assimilação de Experiências Problemáticas (EAEP) descreve o processo de assimilação de experiências problemáticas em terapia. Ainda que a EAEP apresente uma sequência ordenada, estudos demonstram que o processo de assimilação não é contínuo; contrariamente, o processo parece seguir um padrão de altos e baixos, com progressos seguidos de retrocessos, particularmente em psicoterapias cognitivas. Neste artigo, apresentamos uma análise dos retrocessos no processo de uma cliente com um bom prognóstico, Maria, em tratamento com terapia linguística de avaliação. A amostra é composta por 105 retrocessos retirados da análise da assimilação de Maria de três problemas principais. As razões para a maioria dos retrocessos podem ser classificadas numa de três categorias: a zona de desenvolvimento próximo, a metáfora de equilíbrio e as linhas múltiplas. Cada uma destas categorias pode ser compreendida como uma consequência da estratégia cognitiva e ainda como parte do processo da terapia cognitiva e não como um desvio ou insucesso. Neste sentido, os retrocessos, enquadrados no modelo de assimilação, reflectem algumas das principais características da terapia cognitiva. No entanto, não podemos excluir a possibilidade dos retrocessos no desenvolvimento poderem indicar uma perspectiva de insucesso e, como tal, os terapeutas devem estar atentos e procurar solucioná-los.The assimilation model is an integrative model that can be applied to any kind of therapeutic setting for describing the process of change. The Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES) describes the process of assimilation of problematic experiences in therapy. Although the APES presents an orderly sequence, studies have shown that assimilation process is not smooth; instead it seems to follow a sawtoothed path, with advances followed by setbacks or reversals, particularly in cognitive psychotherapies. In this paper, we report an analysis of assimilation setbacks in the process of of a good-outcome client, María, treated with linguistic therapy of evaluation are analyzed. The sample is composed of 105 setbacks taken from analysis of María's assimilation of three main problems. The reasons for most of the setbacks could be classified in one of three categories: the zone of proximal development, the balance metaphor, and multiple strands. Each of these categories can be understood as a consequence of the cognitive strategy and thus part of the process of cognitive therapy rather than a deviation or failure. In this sense setbacks, framed in the assimilation model, reflect some of the main characteristics of cognitive therapy. Nevertheless, we could not exclude the possibility that setbacks could mark a prospective drop-out; therefore, therapists should pay attention and resolve them.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How collaboration in therapy becomes therapeutic: the therapeutic collaboration coding system

Background. The quality and strength of the therapeutic collaboration, the core of the alliance, is reliably associated with positive therapy outcomes. The urgent challenge for clinicians and researchers is constructing a conceptual framework to integrate the dialectical work that fosters collaboration, with a model of how clients make progress in therapy. Aim. We propose a conceptual account of how collaboration in therapy becomes therapeutic. In addition, we report on the construction of a coding system – the therapeutic collaboration coding system (TCCS) – designed to analyse and track on a moment-by-moment basis the interaction between therapist and client. Preliminary evidence is presented regarding the coding system’s psychometric properties. The TCCS evaluates each speaking turn and assesses whether and how therapists are working within the client’s therapeutic zone of proximal development, defined as the space between the client’s actual therapeutic developmental level and their potential developmental level that can be reached in collaboration with the therapist. Method. We applied the TCCS to five cases: a good and a poor outcome case of narrative therapy, a good and a poor outcome case of cognitive-behavioural therapy, and a dropout case of narrative therapy. Conclusion. The TCCS offers markers that may help researchers better understand the therapeutic collaboration on a moment-to-moment basis and may help therapists better regulate the relationship.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT); the PhD Grant SFRH/BD/46189/2008