This study explores perspectives of feminist therapists on working with adolescent girls. The participants in this study were three feminist therapists, two of whom were pursuing doctoral studies in counseling psychology and one of whom was an experienced therapist, trained in social work. The research data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, as well as through questionnaires. Triangulation of the data (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007) and interview coding formed the basis of the analysis. The results indicated that participants held well-defined ideas as to the meaning which they gave to feminist therapy and the methods which they used to implement it, in the form of principles, objectives, techniques, and characteristics of the therapeutic relationship, both with adolescents and with adults. In addition, participants revealed their thoughts regarding the appropriateness and relevance of feminist therapy for working with adolescent girls. Furthermore, several challenges to practicing feminist therapy were discussed.

The research examined the relationship between counsellor awareness of client-identified helpful events and session and event level outcome. Furthermore, counselling participants' experiences of the change processes in high and low counsellor awareness were also examined. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze ratings and word responses of clients' and counsellors' perspectives about how therapeutic change came about in helpful therapy events. Results of the quantitative study indicated no association between counsellor awareness and session and event level outcome. Results of the qualitative study indicated that in helpful events that therapists were most aware of, clients described the process as particularly more helpful than events where therapists were least aware. Descriptions from the high awareness events indicated that therapists tended to be most aware of client selected helpful events characterized by an interpersonal therapeutic focus, with clients expressing and exploring negative feelings toward significant others. Descriptions from the low awareness events indicated that therapists were least aware of client selected helpful events where clients were working toward identifying their feelings and understanding unwanted aspects of themselves.

Across a number of theoretical orientations, the manifestation and working through of clients' central relationship patterns is considered to be an important aspect of psychotherapy process. The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method was developed as an operationalization of transference, or the transfer of an individual's core relational schemas across relationships. Studies of therapeutic transference using pathological client samples have shown that there is some overlap between clients' relationship patterns with others and those that emerge with the therapist. The main objectives of the present research was to extend the study of therapeutic transference to therapies with high-functioning clients and to improve the methodology used in transference research by exploring an alternate method of collecting client narratives about their relationship with the therapist. / The first study explored the manifestation of transference with high-functioning clients in early sessions. Factor analyses of Wish (W), Response of Other (RO) and Response of Self (RS) components of the CCRT were conducted to examine the relationship between client relational themes with significant others and client relational themes with the therapist. Findings within the Wish (W) and Response of Other (RO) components indicated a complementary pattern of relating in which the therapist was idealized and others were devalued, and findings within the RS component indicated a concordant relational transfer, in which clients had a negative response to both the therapist and others. Additionally, control issues emerged in the W component for significant others and in the RS component for the therapist. / The second study addressed methodological limitations found in previous studies by drawing therapist narratives from a Participant Critical Event (PCE) interview rather than from psychotherapy sessions. In the PCE interview, client narratives about the therapist are not constrained by the presence of the therapist, resulting in a greater availability of potentially more candid descriptions of the therapeutic relationship. Factor analyses for the W and RO components indicated a complementary pattern of relating, in which the therapist was devalued and others were idealized, and findings for the RS component indicate a concordant relational transfer, in which clients felt bad with both the therapist and others. Additionally, the factor structure of the W and RO components suggests that as clients experience control issues with significant others, they wish to adopt a submissive stance toward the therapist. / Although both studies yielded a similar overall pattern of complementary and concordant transference, there was an inversion in the valence of the complementary transference; in the first study, therapists were idealized and significant others were devalued while in the second study, therapists were devalued and others were idealized. Since the source of therapist narratives was the single greatest methodological difference between the two studies, the inversion in the findings could reasonably be attributed to the source of therapist narratives. Taken together, the results of these two studies suggest that the source of relational narratives is an important consideration in the study of relationship patterns. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

This research examined the relationship between client emotional expression and the level of working alliance between therapist and client. The data were collected from 24 psychotherapy sessions conducted by exemplary psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated that there was no significant linear relationship between the level of intensity of client emotional expression and the level of working alliance. Client emotional expression occurred independently of the level of the working alliance. Using a qualitative method, the study restricted its sample to 5 episodes each from the high and low working alliance sessions in order to examine therapeutic processes surrounding client emotional expression more closely. It was found that the nature of emotional expression and the interaction between therapist and client were quite different in episodes taken from the high and the low alliance sessions. In the high alliance sessions, clients expressed their troubling feelings as they examined their problems. Client emotional expressions were signs of productive therapeutic process. On the other hand, in the low alliance sessions, clients expressed anger and frustration toward their therapists for certain breaches of their relationship. Independently of the differing theoretical orientations, the therapeutic process appeared to converge particularly in the low alliance sessions, showing a similar pattern of therapist and client transactions. In addition to the findings, the study proposed a qualitative method suited for examining a wide variety of questions arising from clinical practice.

These studies investigated relationships between the working alliance, client good moments, therapist verbal response modes, and client experiencing. Correlations between increased levels of the working alliance and increased occurrence of good moments were only between the bond aspect of the alliance and good moments of provision of significant information. The best fitting models of the working alliance, therapist verbal response modes, and client good moments indicated that a 3-way interaction was a good fit in the provision of significant information modality. Two-way interactions between the working alliance and therapist response modes revealed that low structure response modes, Particularly reflection/restatement occurred more frequently than expected at moderate alliance levels, and high structure interventions, particularly direct guidance/advice, occurred more frequently than expected at low and high affiance levels. It was suggested that the context of collaboration and liking (high alliance), and the context of struggle (low alliance), may be having an influence that prompts therapists to structure their interventions. The interactions between the working alliance and good moments in the exploratory and affective/expressive modalities showed that the high proportions of good moments occurred in the high and low working alliance sessions. The lowest proportions of good moments occurred in the moderate alliance sessions suggesting that different processes may be in operation at different alliance levels. The best fitting models of interactions of client experiencing, therapist verbal response modes, and client good moments in indicated that 2-way interactions best explained the data. In general, as experiencing levels rose, there were increases in the frequency of occurrence of client good moment. The interactions between therapist verbal response modes and experiencing indicated that specific levels of experiencing seem to be associated with specific c

Bowlby's notion that client secure attachment to the therapist leads to deeper client exploration, is considered an important corner stone of the therapeutic process. Psychotherapy researchers have neglected the study of therapist contributions and observer perspectives when studying this important therapeutic phenomenon. Studies of therapeutic secure base have shown that there is a relationship between client general attachment patterns and those with therapist, as well as that this secure attachment to therapist relates to deeper sessions. The main objectives of the present research was to extend the study of secure base in therapy to include consideration of therapist attachment processes and to improve the methodology used in attachment research by adding the expert observer perspective to operationalize session exploration. The first study explored the secure base hypothesis, the transference hypothesis and the role of therapist attachment in the process. Sixty-seven clients and therapists in-training, in short term therapy, completed the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECRS), the Client Attachment to Therapist Scale (CATS), Working Alliance Inventory (WAI), and a measure of session depth; the Session Evaluation Questionnaire-Depth subscale. In line with Bowlby's (1988) secure base hypothesis, secure attachment to therapist was significantly associated with session depth. Therapist insecure adult attachment was negatively associated with client secure attachment to therapist. / The second study addressed methodological limitations found in previous studies by using both client and expert observer perspectives in the operationalization of session exploration. Thirty-one clients assessed depth in the middle sessions of their short-term therapies and rated their attachment to their therapists. Raters assessed experiencing in the same sessions using the Experiencing Scale. Secure attachment to therapist was positively and significantly associated with experiencing levels. However, the two perspectives on session exploration did not converge, suggesting that each taps a distinct aspect of session exploration and underlining the importance of rater perspective in the operationalization of this construct. Taken together, the results of these two studies offer a strong support for the secure base hypothesis. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Gregory J. Jurkovic, committee chair; Leslie C. Jackson, Marolyn C. Wells, Roderick J. Watts, committee members. Electronic text (159 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Jan. 28, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-149).

Thesis (MHSc--Health Science) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2003. / Appendices A and E not included in e-thesis. Also held in print (138 leaves, 30 cm.) in Akoranga Theses Collection. (T 616.8914 GOU)

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (p.45-50).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-41).