Contributions of Systemic Research to the Development of Psychotherapy

Abstract

Today, psychotherapy research and practice is confronted with other challenges than it was during the twentieth-century steps of the profession. This chapter questions whether and how systemic research can contribute to meet these challenges. One important technological means for this purpose is Internet- or app-based real-time monitoring of human change dynamics. Tools like the Synergetic Navigation System are able to identify pattern transitions and critical periods of change processes in intra- and interpersonal systems in the time of their occurrence. E-technologies allow for data acquisition in real-world settings and routine practice, making research more ecologically valid, and by this means enter the world of big data. Other illustrations of systemic research concern synchronized order transitions in mental and neural network dynamics (data base: daily self-reports and repeated fMRI scans of OCD patients during inpatient treatment) and the investigation of critical instabilities and order transitions related to the timing of exposure with response prevention in OCD patients. Finally, an important pathway in systemic research is theoretical modeling. A mathematical model of psychotherapeutic change dynamics is presented which defines nonlinear interactions of order and control parameters at the level of client’s cognitions, emotions, and behavior.