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Leveraging natural language processing to study emotional coherence in psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy, Vol 61(1), Mar 2024, 82-92; doi:10.1037/pst0000517The association between emotional experience and expression, known as emotional coherence, is considered important for individual functioning. Recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) make it possible to automatically recognize verbally expressed emotions in psychotherapy dialogues and to explore emotional coherence with larger samples and finer granularity than previously. The present study used state-of-the-art emotion recognition models to automatically label clients’ emotions at the utterance level, employed these labeled data to examine the...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - January 18, 2024 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Bridging the multicultural orientation framework with sexual and gender minority psychotherapy: A mixed studies systematic review.
Psychotherapy, Vol 61(1), Mar 2024, 1-30; doi:10.1037/pst0000518Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) experience higher rates of psychological distress and seek psychotherapy at higher rates compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. However, few therapists are trained on how to provide effective psychotherapy with SGM clients. The multicultural orientation (MCO) framework, which has been linked to improved therapeutic processes and outcomes, may be a valuable tool for working with SGM clients. The primary aim of this systematic review was to link the MCO framework to existing empirical psychotherapy research ...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - January 11, 2024 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Correction to Timulak et al. (2022).
Psychotherapy, Vol 60(4), Dec 2023, 547; doi:10.1037/pst0000504Reports an error in "A comparison of emotion-focused therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: Results of a feasibility randomized controlled trial" by Ladislav Timulak, Daragh Keogh, Craig Chigwedere, Charlotte Wilson, Fiona Ward, David Hevey, Patrick Griffin, Louise Jacobs, Suzanne Hughes, Christina Vaughan, Kea Beckham and Shona Mahon (Psychotherapy, 2022[Mar], Vol 59[1], 84-95). In the article, the third n and percentage values in the second sentence in the second paragraph of the Treatment Drop Out, Number o...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - December 14, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Correction to Hill and Norcross (2023).
This article introduces the special issue of Psychotherapy on evidence-based skills and methods and concomitantly, outlines the purposes and processes of the Interorganizational Task Force that guided the work. We provide the rationale for reviewing psychotherapy skills and methods, define and contrast skills and methods with other components of psychotherapy, describe how to assess skills, methods, and outcomes (immediate in-session, intermediate, and distal), how to link skills and methods with outcomes, and how to summarize the extant research on those skills and methods. Finally, we describe how the research reviews of...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - December 14, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Validation of the German version of the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale.
Psychotherapy, Vol 61(1), Mar 2024, 93-100; doi:10.1037/pst0000510The Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale (CPPS) is a 20-item scale which aims to capture technical features distinguishing cognitive behavioral (CBT) from psychodynamic (PD) psychotherapy (and vice versa) in two corresponding subscales (CBT and PD Subscale). Our objective was to validate a German self-report version of the CPPS regarding a previous psychotherapy session in a psychotherapist- and in a patient-version. Fifty-three psychotherapists and their 53 patients answered to the according German CPPS Scale as well as to specific subscales of the Multi...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - November 30, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Chinese counseling trainees’ trait and state mindfulness and client symptom outcome: A longitudinal examination with multilevel and random-intercept cross-lagged panel models.
This study aimed to explore how Chinese counseling trainees’ trait and state mindfulness predicted their clients’ symptom level over the course of therapy. A data set consisting of 6,888 sessions from 1,216 clients and their 211 master’s level beginning therapist trainees in China was used, which included a measure of trainees’ trait mindfulness at the beginning of their practicum and their state mindfulness and client-rated symptom distress level at the beginning of each of their therapy sessions. Multilevel modeling and random-intercept cross-lagged panel model results suggested that (a) at the trainee level, a t...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - November 20, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Repairing alliance ruptures in psychodynamic psychotherapy with young people: The development of a rational–empirical model to support youth therapists.
This study aims to address this gap specifically in the context of psychodynamic psychotherapy with adolescents. The objectives of the study are (a) to understand the therapeutic interventions and attitudes that either facilitate or hinder the resolution of alliance ruptures and (b) to develop a model for repairing these ruptures within this particular treatment approach. To accomplish this, a task analysis of a previously developed rational model of resolving alliance ruptures was conducted using 16 sessions from short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy with depressed adolescents. The analysis supported some stages of the h...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - November 13, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Facilitating children’s in-session involvement in child and family therapies: A dynamic framework of clinical practices.
Psychotherapy, Vol 61(1), Mar 2024, 55-67; doi:10.1037/pst0000511Children’s in-session involvement in child and family therapies correlates with both positive and negative treatment outcomes. Thus, it is important to gain a better understanding of the clinical practices that facilitate children’s involvement in therapy sessions so that practitioners can employ them with greater precision. To address this need, we conducted a study to answer the following question: What clinical practices facilitate children’s in-session involvement in child and family therapies? The data consisted of 16 extant audiovisual recordings ...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - November 2, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Alexithymia and treatment response for prolonged exposure therapy: An evaluation of outcomes and mechanisms.
Psychotherapy, Vol 61(1), Mar 2024, 44-54; doi:10.1037/pst0000512Alexithymia is the inability to identify and recognize emotions. The present study examined the impact of alexithymia on prolonged exposure (PE) therapy. Participants (n = 68) with PTSD underwent 10 PE sessions. Alexithymia was assessed via the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the emotional clarity and awareness subscales of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Treatment outcomes were assessed via the PTSD checklist and Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition at posttreatmen...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - November 2, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

A qualitative meta-analysis exploring client-reported outcomes of couple therapy.
This study aimed to meta-analyze the client-reported outcomes of couple therapy generated in the studies using qualitative methods. A sample of 15 primary studies examining clients’ reported outcomes of couple therapy was identified through an extensive literature search. Relevant qualitative data on the client-reported outcomes were extracted into a single data set. The data was then analyzed using a descriptive–interpretive qualitative meta-analytic approach. Similar outcomes were grouped into metacategories. The metacategories were then organized into several clusters of the client-reported outcomes of couple therap...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - October 30, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Dynamic relations between mentalization techniques and therapeutic alliance in psychodynamic child therapy: An evidence-based case study.
Psychotherapy, Vol 60(4), Dec 2023, 548-559; doi:10.1037/pst0000505Therapeutic alliance and mentalization are common factors inherent to all effective treatments. Mentalization-based interventions have the potential to create a safe relationship, which makes further mentalizing interventions possible. However, to date, no study has examined the bidirectional relationship between these variables in child psychotherapy. In an evidence-based case study design, psychodynamic therapy processes of two Turkish children (age: 9 and 10 years) who presented with social withdrawal problems were compared. All their sessions (34 sessio...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - October 19, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Healing from weight stigma in community: A thematic analysis of a group intervention for large-bodied individuals.
Psychotherapy, Vol 60(4), Dec 2023, 455-466; doi:10.1037/pst0000509Discrimination against and negative beliefs about large-bodied individuals, known as weight stigma, is pervasive and harmful. While previous research has focused on the negative consequences of weight stigma, the present study aims to highlight the lived experience of large-bodied individuals while also exploring the process of healing from harmful experiences of weight stigma. Ten adult (9/10 White, 8/10 cisgender women), large-bodied individuals recruited via snowball sampling through a nonprofit, grassroots, eating disorder advocacy organization particip...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - October 19, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The effects of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on depressive symptoms, negative affect, and emotional repression in single treatment-resistant depression: A randomized controlled trial.
Psychotherapy, Vol 60(4), Dec 2023, 497-511; doi:10.1037/pst0000500Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) is theorized to reduce negative affect by challenging patients’ defense mechanisms so that they can experience and work through attachment-trauma-related emotions. While ISTDP has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms in single treatment-resistant depression (TRD), it has not been established whether negative affect and emotional repression are reduced, as theorized. Next to depressive symptoms, this retrospectively registered (https://osf.io/v46gy) randomized controlled trial, therefore, examined th...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - October 16, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Words count in psychotherapy: Differentiating language characteristics of cognitive behavioral therapy and focal psychodynamic therapy for anorexia nervosa.
Psychotherapy, Vol 60(4), Dec 2023, 488-496; doi:10.1037/pst0000499It is generally assumed that psychodynamic therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) differ in terms of applied techniques and processes. To date, however, little is known about whether and how such differences can actually be observed at a basic linguistic level and in what the two treatment approaches differ most strongly (i.e., how psychodynamic and CBT therapists differ in what they actually say word-by-word in therapy sessions). Building on theoretical models and previous research that used observer ratings, we formulated specific hypotheses regar...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - October 12, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Psychotherapist variables that may lead to treatment failure or termination—A qualitative analysis of patients’ perspectives.
Psychotherapy, Vol 60(4), Dec 2023, 431-441; doi:10.1037/pst0000503A substantial number of patients do not improve from psychotherapy, some even deteriorate, and some terminate treatment prematurely. Identifying therapist variables that may lead to treatment failures from patients’ perspectives can inform how psychotherapists can increase effectiveness. Using a semistructured protocol, we interviewed 24 patients who had experienced unsatisfying individual face-to-face psychotherapy within the last 2 years. The study procedures were guided by the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. The manifest conte...
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - October 12, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research