Examining minority stress, dyadic coping, and internalizing symptoms among male same-sex couples using actor–partner interdependence models.
Minority stress processes have been consistently linked to increased internalizing symptoms among sexual minority individuals. However, very little research has studied the impact of minority stress on the mental health of same-sex couples. The present study examined associations of actor and partner heterosexist microaggressions and internalized heterosexism with internalizing symptoms, moderated by dyadic coping, among male same-sex couples. Participants were 774 men who have sex with men (387 dyads). Results of actor–partner interdependence models showed that actor, but not partner, minority stress was positively asso...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - March 22, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Determining the therapist’s contribution in therapist multicultural competence process and outcome.
In this study, we used a repeated measures design of 8,497 observations from 1,458 clients across 35 therapists to clarify the proportion of variability in MCC ratings attributed to the therapist versus the client and better understand the extent that an MCC measure detects therapist differences. Overall, we found that a small amount of variability in MCC ratings was attributed to the therapist (2%) and substantial amount attributed to the client (70%). These findings suggest that our measure of MCC primarily detected differences at the client level versus therapist level, indicating that therapist MCC scores were largely ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - November 30, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Feeling offended by clients: The experiences of doctoral student therapists.
Ten doctoral student therapists (8 White, 5 female) in 1 counseling psychology doctoral program located in the Mid-Atlantic United States were interviewed for approximately 1 hour each about their experiences of feeling offended by a client during an individual psychotherapy session. Interview data were analyzed with consensual qualitative research (CQR). Trainee therapists typically felt offended related to their sociocultural identities (e.g., being a woman, LGBTQ+, racial-ethnic minority), felt frozen after the events and uncertain about how to respond, wished they had handled the events differently, and struggled when ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - November 5, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Examining racial microaggressions in group therapy and the buffering role of members’ perceptions of their group’s multicultural orientation.
This study documents the high prevalence of racial microaggressions in group therapy and the effect of the group’s MCO on the relationship between racial microaggressions and REM members’ perceptions of group cohesion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology)
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The role of mental health counseling in college students’ academic success: An interrupted time series analysis.
This study suggests that counseling can be beneficial for college students’ academic success, in part due to changes in students’ psychological distress, but not their academic distress, specifically for clinically distressed students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology)
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Beyond symptom reduction: Development and validation of the Complementary Measure of Psychotherapy Outcome (COMPO).
This study reports on the development and validation of the Complementary Measure of Psychotherapy Outcome (COMPO) that assesses different areas of psychological functioning deemed important by clients and therapists. Items were written based on a literature review of client-reported change and feedback from experienced therapists. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the initial 42-item COMPO administered to 264 psychotherapy clients. Iterative item reduction resulted in the final 12-item, four-factor solution, with factors named self-acceptance, self-knowledge, relationship quality, and consideration of others. T...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Congruence about working alliance in Chinese context: The moderating effect of therapists’ self-efficacy and the relationship between congruence and psychotherapy outcome.
The present study was conducted to (a) identify the clients and therapists’ perceptual directional discrepancy and temporal congruence in different aspects of working alliance (i.e., goals/tasks and bond), (b) examine the moderating effect of therapists’ client-specific self-efficacy on the directional discrepancy and congruence, (c) clarify the relationship between specific working alliance aspects congruence and the next-session symptom, and (d) test the relationship between the congruence of goals/tasks or bond and the psychotherapy outcome under different levels of therapists’ self-efficacy. Clients (n = 87, 80.9...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the good-enough level (GEL) literature.
The “good-enough level” (GEL) model proposes that people respond differentially to psychotherapy, and that the typical curvilinear “dose-response” shape of change may be an artifact of aggregation. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the GEL literature to examine (a) whether different subgroups of adults accessing psychotherapy respond to therapy at different rates and (b) whether the shape of change is linear or nonlinear. This review was preregistered on PROSPERO. Fifteen studies were synthesized (n = 114,123), with 10 included across two meta-analyses (n = 46,921; n = 41,515). Systematic search...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Attending to the intersectionality and saliency of clients’ identities: A further investigation of therapists’ multicultural orientation.
Psychotherapy clients often hold multiple and varied cultural identities, and it is important for therapists to attend to the intersectionality of clients’ cultural identities, as well as the saliency of these identities. However, to date, few studies have considered the saliency of clients’ multiple identities and how this may impact clients’ perceptions of cultural processes in therapy. Therefore, this study utilized polynomial regression and response surface analysis to operationalize and examine congruent and discrepant effects between the saliency of clients’ multiple identities and their perceptions of their ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Cultural context matters: Testing the minority stress model among Chinese sexual minority men.
Minority stress theory (e.g., Meyer, 2003b), a model for understanding mental health disparities affecting sexual minorities, has primarily been tested in Western samples yet has not been carefully applied to the experiences of sexual minorities in a global context, including in East Asian countries. Combining minority stress theory with considerations of Chinese culture, the current study tested the associations among norm conformity, distal minority stressor (enacted stigma), proximal minority stressors (sexual identity concerns and concealment), lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) family support, and psychological distress...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - October 8, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Retiring or rewiring? Test of a social cognitive model of retirement planning.
Using the social cognitive model of career self-management (CSM; Lent & Brown, 2013), we examined theory-based predictors of retirement planning goals, decisional anxiety, and level of decidedness. Participants were 525 older workers in the United States and Canada. We first examined the psychometric properties of new or revised social cognitive measures linked to retirement planning with part of the sample (n = 200) and then tested the stability of the factor structure with the remainder of the sample (n = 325). The measurement and structural models indicated good overall model-data fit in the larger sample and across mos...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - September 3, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Association between therapist attunement to patient outcome expectation and worry reduction in two therapies for generalized anxiety disorder.
Patients’ higher psychotherapy outcome expectation (OE) correlates with improvement. Thus, it seems important that therapists attune to this belief, both in the moment and over time, to capitalize on its value when higher or respond to its potential risk when lower. Conceptually, attunement can have different guises, including the extent to which therapists (a) accurately estimate their patients’ momentary OE level (low directional discrepancy), (b) become more accurate in estimating OE over time (convergence), (c) accurately track shifts in their patients’ OE (temporal congruence), and (d) become more temporally con...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - September 3, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Interpersonal dynamics and therapeutic relationship in patients with functional somatic syndromes: A metasynthesis of case studies.
Patients with functional somatic syndromes (FSS) often display troubled relationships with health care providers, psychotherapists, and significant others. Research shows that patients’ history of trauma, attachment disturbances, and mentalization deficits may result in the emergence of maladaptive interpersonal patterns, which may later contribute to the onset and maintenance of FSS, “doctor hopping,” and dropout in psychotherapy. As the nature and therapeutic consequences of such maladaptive interpersonal patterns in FSS cannot be understood sufficiently by quantitative methods alone, there is a need for in-depth q...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - August 27, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Effects of patient–therapist interpersonal complementarity on alliance and outcome in cognitive–behavioral therapies for depression: Moving toward interpersonal responsiveness.
This study analyzed patient–therapist in-session interpersonal complementarity effects on the therapeutic alliance and depression severity during the initial and working phase of cognitive–behavioral therapy for depression. It also explored whether patients’ interpersonal problems moderate those complementarity effects. We drew on a sample of 90 dyads derived from a randomized controlled trial of two cognitive–behavioral therapies for depression. Using an observer-based measure, we assessed patients’ and therapists’ interpersonal behavior in Sessions 1, 5, 9, and 13 and computed their complementarity regarding ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - August 27, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Do therapists improve in their ability to assess clients’ satisfaction? A truth and bias model.
We examined 3 factors of clinical experience that could moderate accuracy: (a) overall level of acquaintanceship with a client, operationalized as treatment length (i.e., less or more time seeing a client), (b) time point in therapy with a specific client, operationalized as session number (i.e., earlier or later in treatment with a client), and (c) order (1st client seen, 2nd client seen . . . last client seen across two years of training in a psychology clinic) in which clients were seen. We conducted a three-level hierarchical linear modeling using data on 6054 sessions, nested in 284 adult clients, nested in 41 doctora...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 16, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
