Therapist Experience, Personal Therapy, and Distressing States of Mind: Regulation and Resonance as Dialectics of Therapeutic Empathy

We examined the impact of several moderators on the paths from attachment anxiety, shame-proneness, and the fear of invalidity to personal distress empathy; and, thus, on the indirect effect between attachment anxiety and personal distress empathy. For our first hypothesis, we expected therapist status to significantly moderate the paths in this proposed meditation. For our second hypothesis, we anticipated personal therapy sessions would significantly moderate this meditation. For our third hypothesis, we expected that both personal therapyand therapist experience level would moderate this mediation. Most notably, our results indicated that the fear of invalidity explained the association between attachment anxiety and personal distress empathy, and this mediation was stronger among non-therapists when compared to therapists. Yet, personal therapy did not similarly impact the relationships among these variables. Implications for future research are discussed.
Source: Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research