Communication In Psychotherapy Research Articles

Retraction of Robinson et al. (2015).

Reports the retraction of "Crying as communication in psychotherapy: The influence of client and therapist attachment dimensions and client attachment to therapist on amount and type of crying" by Noah Robinson, Clara E. Hill and Dennis M. Kivlighan Jr. (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2015[Jul], Vol 62[3], 379-392). The following article is being retracted (https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000090). This retraction is at the request of coauthors Kivlighan and Hill after the results of an investigation by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB found that the study included data from between one and four therapy clients of the Maryland Psychotherapy Clinic and Research Laboratory (MPCRL) who either had not been asked to provide consent or had withdrawn consent for their data to be included in the research. Robinson was not responsible for obtaining and verifying participant consent but agreed to the retraction of this article. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-23479-001.) Nelson (2005) associated 3 types of crying (inhibited, protest, despair) with 3 dimensions of attachment (avoidant, anxious, and secure). To test this theory, trained judges rated the intensity of inhibition, protest, and despair in 347 crying episodes for 40 clients and 14 therapists in 1,074 psychotherapy sessions. Crying occurred once out of every 7 sessions, and usually was characterized by protest or inhibition. Pre-therapy attachment dimensions of both therapist and client influenced crying. Therapists with high attachment avoidance had clients who cried frequently but less over time, whereas therapists with high attachment anxiety had clients who cried with more protest over time. Clients with high attachment anxiety initially cried with more protest and inhibition, but decreased over time, whereas clients with low attachment anxiety increased protest over time. Throughout the course of psychotherapy, therapists who were seen by their clients as establishing a secure attachment elicited more overall crying and a higher intensity of protest, whereas therapists who were seen by their clients as establishing insecure attachments had clients who cried less. Clients who established a secure or avoidant relationship with their therapists, relative to other clients of that therapist, cried infrequently and with inhibition, whereas clients who established a preoccupied relationship cried relatively often. Changes are suggested for Nelson's (2005) typology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The use of augmentative alternative communication in psychotherapy

AbstractThe use of augmentative alternative communication (AAC) in psychotherapy is particularly important for psychotherapists who may have a disability related to speech‐language production. The aim of our study was to examine the perceptions of using AAC in psychotherapy. We recruited 186 participants and randomly assigned them to either watch a video of a therapist using AAC or employing traditional talk psychotherapy. Subsequently, we asked participants to complete the Counsellor Rating Form‐Short (CRF‐S), respond to a question about behavioural intention to seek psychotherapy and complete the Working Alliance Inventory‐Observer form (WAI‐O). Most participants perceived the use of AAC to be related to the therapist having a disability. The use of AAC had higher ratings on the CRF‐S and higher scores on the WAI‐O. There were no significant differences in behavioural intention between the therapist using AAC or traditional talk psychotherapy. The use of AAC is a viable option for psychotherapy and is beneficial. Psychotherapists with a disability affecting speech‐language production may opt to use AAC as others perceive the therapist positively, the alliance is rated higher and therapists do not need to be concerned with patients not wanting to seek out their services.

Phenomenological considerations on empathy and emotions in psychotherapy.

In this article we will present a phenomenological approach to empathy and its relationship with emotions in the context of psychotherapy, highlighting the importance of empathy as a key element of the therapist-client relationship and therapeutic process, regardless of the therapist’s approach. We will use a consensus definition of empathy taken from phenomenologically oriented philosophy to analyze therapist’s empathy, as well as client’s self-empathy and client’s empathic communication with others. We will discuss emotions as they usually manifest in the context of psychotherapy, specifically describing how certain emotions can disturb empathic communication in close personal relationships and how it is possible to reestablish empathic communication in psychotherapy. This article it is not only based on evidence from scientific literature but also incorporates the authors’ practical knowledge of psychotherapy.

The embodiment of language

AbstractIn this paper an understanding of psychotherapeutic conversation is outlined emphasising whole-body functioning. The underpinning of conversation by both Central and Autonomic Nervous Systems (CNS & ANS) and evolutionary developments that support social engagement and language are considered. An idea will be taken up that for psychotherapy, language needs to be understood within each patient as more than meets the eye, rather than less, providing a potential for exchanges in the therapeutic conversation that enhance the growth of self for each individual. The notion ofculminativepatterns of communicative interaction speaks to this growth and the enhancement of a sense of meaning in personal contexts. This goes beyond an analytic approach, implying synthesis, integration and growing coherence over time. Human development is towards social engagement, building upon a capacity for relations that are rewarding to the parties involved (Meares 2016). The problem of responding to embodied communication in psychotherapy is considered in relation to moments of meeting, seen as mutative in therapy. Each person is anembodied textwith potential for elaboration, re-shaping and discovery. Clinical illustrations are provided, demonstrating a linguistic model of therapeutic growth and an experimental method that provides a window onto the exchange characteristics of language. To close, the problem of systematising embodiment and its relation to the conversation is considered, along with the implications for therapy and future research, integrating linguistics and interactive functional measures of the body.

About Experiences Gained in Some Students’ Workshops

Abstract On the occasion of some workshops in which students from medicine participate, they come in contact with different source of information, enrich their experience and establish new relations with their colleagues, into a specific educational context. Otherwise, by the themes approached during the workshops and by the horizon of knowledge, the students acquire a set of information designed to meet their need of personal, social and professional identity. Describing two workshops focused on communication in psychotherapy and personal development, this paper presents the educational strategies and outcomes that finally lead to very productive students-trainers relationships.

Crying as communication in psychotherapy: The influence of client and therapist attachment dimensions and client attachment to therapist on amount and type of crying.

Nelson (2005) associated 3 types of crying (inhibited, protest, despair) with 3 dimensions of attachment (avoidant, anxious, and secure). To test this theory, trained judges rated the intensity of inhibition, protest, and despair in 347 crying episodes for 40 clients and 14 therapists in 1,074 psychotherapy sessions. Crying occurred once out of every 7 sessions, and usually was characterized by protest or inhibition. Pre-therapy attachment dimensions of both therapist and client influenced crying. Therapists with high attachment avoidance had clients who cried frequently but less over time, whereas therapists with high attachment anxiety had clients who cried with more protest over time. Clients with high attachment anxiety initially cried with more protest and inhibition, but decreased over time, whereas clients with low attachment anxiety increased protest over time. Throughout the course of psychotherapy, therapists who were seen by their clients as establishing a secure attachment elicited more overall crying and a higher intensity of protest, whereas therapists who were seen by their clients as establishing insecure attachments had clients who cried less. Clients who established a secure or avoidant relationship with their therapists, relative to other clients of that therapist, cried infrequently and with inhibition, whereas clients who established a preoccupied relationship cried relatively often. Changes are suggested for Nelson's (2005) typology.

Construct Validity of a Measure of Affective Communication in Psychotherapy.

The present study evaluates the psychometric properties of a therapist measure for evaluating the affective communication created between the patient and therapist during the initial stages of treatment. The Affective Communication Questionnaire (ACQ) was administered to a sample of 81 therapists, each rating a single patient, and principal component analysis indicated the measure has coherent dimensions with strong internal consistency. The construct validity of the ACQ was then established in a sample of 16 therapists rating 73 patients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The measure was found to have a strong relationship to the related constructs of transference, countertransference, and affect experience in predicted directions. The measure also was found to have a modest relationship to independent assessments of patient functioning; most notably more negative affect was significantly related to more odd/eccentric (cluster A) and less anxious/fearful (cluster C) personality disorder symptoms, and greater narrative coherence. Differences in affective communication as a function of treatment type were also evaluated. The clinical and research implications of the findings are discussed.

Electronical communication in psychotherapy

Electronical communication in psychotherapy

Ask the Expert: Exploring the Clinician's Concern About Physician-Assisted Suicide

Ask the Expert: Exploring the Clinician's Concern About Physician-Assisted Suicide

Locus and Communication

Effective communication in psychotherapy is viewed through a systemic lens. Therapist flexibility in attribution of the locus of emotion, action, and responsibility in therapy is exemplified and the consequences for therapeutic relationship are shown. Transference is described with a theatrical metaphor, leading to new approaches to solutions in difficult cases. The concepts of locus, structure, and utilization provide a framework and rules of thumb for emotionally viable relationships in therapeutic contexts and cultures.

Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in psychotherapy.

Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in psychotherapy.

Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in psychotherapy.

Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in psychotherapy.

Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in psychotherapy.

Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in psychotherapy.

The non‐random nature of communication in psychotherapy

AbstractThe second‐by‐second behavior of the scores for patients and therapists on five quantified measures/dimensions of emotional communication used to characterize communicative vehicles was analyzed and compared to both theoretically random and simulated random data. Four criteria for randomness were developed, one distributional, two parametric and one entropic. Simulation was used to match the number of patient and therapist selections of combinations of the five variables across an entire session for parity in comparing simulated random data with actual psychotherapy data. In all cases, the significant statistical finding was that simulated random data meet the four criteria for randomness, while the actual patient and therapist psychotherapy data do not. We conclude that the vicissitudes of the items chosen for observation show non‐random configurations and that patient and therapist variations of their communicative vehicles reflect inherent properties of emotional expression. These results support the view that human behavior is innately structured and patterned, and may be scientifically studied for non‐random meanings and functions.

On deciphering the book of nature: human communication in psychotherapy.

The tools of contemporary applied mathematics reveal important hidden regularities amidst the ongoing interactive feedback phenomena occurring in interactional or dynamical systems in nature where everything affects everything else. Badalamenti and Langs investigate each therapy session as a continuous sequential emergence of interrelated communicative events (or communicative states) which meet the criteria of a dynamical system. Applying mathematical modeling the authors demonstrate how otherwise hidden regularities occurring between patients and therapists become accessible to us that are unavailable to our unaided powers of observation, intuition, and thought. This is a systems or population investigation of clinical interaction that begins in a qualitative or domain mode, but which opens immediately toward statistical and formal modes of discussion. It can lead to statements of properties and laws that meet the criteria of scientific dialogue and validity. It provides the clinician with guidelines for making interpretations and for assessing their immediate subsequent effect. It is distinguished from the essentialist approach at the foundation of traditional clinical thought which provides no access to such feedback phenomena and their properties. Communicative Psychoanalysts have adopted the systems perspective and are evolving a clinical language and treatment based upon its principles and discoveries.

Psychotherapists' attitudes towards and observations of nonverbal communication in a greeting situation: II. Relationships to background variables.

An interview study of 79 Swedish psychotherapists was performed to investigate their attitudes towards and observation of nonverbal communication in a reference situation in relation to background factors such as gender, length of professional experience, and theoretical approach. The greeting situation, i.e., the first time a therapist and patient meet in a waiting-room, was chosen as the reference situation. Face communication in that greeting situation was significantly less achieved by male psychotherapists with relatively short experience than by female therapists. However, this sex difference was not significant among therapists whose psychotherapeutic experience was longer than 13 years. Attaching great importance to nonverbal communication in psychotherapy was related to an intention to be well-kept and to perform correctly in front of the patient, to establish direct communication in the greeting situation, and to background factors such as frequent work in psychotherapy and an eclectic psychotherapeutic approach.

Erickson and Kierkegaard: Indirect communication in psychotherapy.

Erickson and Kierkegaard: Indirect communication in psychotherapy.

Levels of intended meaning of utterances

An utterance's intended meaning may be the same or different at six conceptually distinct levels. Level 0 is the speaker's literal meaning – the conventional meaning of the words as used by the speaker. Level 1 is the speaker's occasion meaning – the pragmatic, on‐record intended meaning. Level 2 is the hint level – intended to be recognized as intended, but off‐record. Level 3 is the manipulation level – intended to be understood by the hearer but not to appear as intended by the speaker. Level 4 is the secret or deception level – meanings that underlie an utterance yet are not meant to be recognized. And level 5 is the subconscious or self‐deception level ‐ meanings that underlie an utterance but are not fully known even to the speaker. These distinctions are advanced as an aid to precision in theory and research on verbal communication in psychotherapy and interpersonal relationships.

Psychological Level Communication in Transactional Analysis

Discusses and illustrates role of psychological level communication in transactional analysis, emphasizing that this “level of communication is present in every transaction and the outcomes of transactions are determined at” this level. Develops an approach which integrates the theory of transactional analysis with the principles of M.H. Erickson's techniques of hypnotic communication and with the mechanistic procedures of neurolinguistic programming. Identifies three broad strategies to utilize psychological level communication in psychotherapy, viz., “probing for allies,” “opening the window and inter-vening with change strategies,” and “relearning,” Specific techniques applicable to each strategy are listed and described briefly. Examples of clinical uses are included.

Review of The use of alternative modes for communication in psychotherapy: The computer, the book, the telephone, the television, the tape recorder.

Review of The use of alternative modes for communication in psychotherapy: The computer, the book, the telephone, the television, the tape recorder.