The Functional Psychotherapy Approach: A Process-Outcome Multiple Case Study.

Diego Rocco,Luca Rizzi,Raffaella Perrella,Gaia Dell’Arciprete

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.727497

Abstract

Objective: The present work aims to conduct the first naturalistic empirical investigation of the process and outcome assessment of functional psychotherapy (FP) treatment. The FP model of psychotherapy is rooted in psychoanalysis and integrates the verbal communication approach founded on transference and countertransference dynamics with the analysis of bodily processes.Method: The study sample included ten patients recruited on a voluntary basis and treated by clinicians in their private practices. Each patient received FP with an average duration of 40 h (min 35 and max 42). Therapies had weekly sessions, were audio-recorded with the patient’s written consent, and lasted for an average of 10 months (min 9 and max 12). Outcome and process tools included the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Luborsky’s the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT), used to assess therapeutic benefit, and the Metacognition Assessment Scale (MAS) and the Italian Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (IDAAP) system, used to evaluate therapeutic benefit and process. The MMPI-2 was used also in the follow-up assessment.Results: Results show that FP had a positive therapeutic outcome on the patients assessed in this study, and that the therapeutic benefits were maintained over time. Some specific features of the FP approach were found to contribute more than others to the observed therapeutic benefits.Conclusion: The current investigation constitutes a first step toward assessment of the therapeutic effectiveness of FP. Future developments should apply the methodology to a larger sample, possibly introducing different methodologies to enable detection of specific bodily oriented processes and techniques.

Highlights

During daily clinical experiences, after meeting a client for the first clinical interview, it is necessary to evaluate what kind of treatments – if any – could be suitable for their specific needs or disorders.In order to make reliable and ethical recommendations, clinicians as well as the psychotherapy community, should gather information on which intervention model has been shown to be effectiveFunctional Psychotherapy: Multiple Case Study in treating a specific disorder (Leichsenring, 2009)
The case of the patient “J,” that could be classified as a positive case if we consider only the MMPI-2 data, appears as not entirely positive if we consider the features of psychotherapy process analyzed by Italian Discourse Attributes Analysis Program system (IDAAP) and Metacognition Assessment Scale (MAS), that show negative trends and, are not consistent with the encouraging results obtained with the outcome tools
The study we presented seems to give reliable indications concerning the outcome assessment of the functional psychotherapy (FP) approach applied on a heterogeneous sample of patients in clinical practice, it is not free of limitations

Summary

Introduction

Functional Psychotherapy: Multiple Case Study in treating a specific disorder (Leichsenring, 2009). The most common scientific design, the randomized controlled trial (RCT; see Shadish et al, 2002), is a methodology that has its roots in medical/pharmacological treatments and intends to systematically control all relevant variables, other than the treatment itself, that could influence the therapeutic outcome. This approach represents the “gold standard” for demonstrating the efficacy of a treatment, since it must be conducted under strictly controlled experimental conditions (Gelo et al, 2010)

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion