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Experiencing and emotional expression in psychotherapy : an investigation of two in-session client processes

Using counselling sessions conducted by ten "master therapists" (e.g., Rogers, Ellis, Perls) from four different schools of psychotherapy, the present study investigated relationships between four variables: Client experiencing, emotional arousal/expression, productive client in-session behaviours, and therapist interventions. / High levels of client experiencing occurred in significantly different proportions across schools in the sample, and had significantly different interactions with clients' productive in-session behaviours across the four schools studied. Likewise, admixtures of client experiencing and strong emotional arousal occurred to significantly different proportions across schools, and these admixtures also had significantly different interactions with clients' productive in-session behaviours across the four schools. These findings demonstrate that clients' productive in-session behaviours are not uniformly facilitated by high levels of experiencing across all schools. / Next, across schools, therapist interventions of low structure were found to be significantly more associated with subsequent high levels of client experiencing than were interventions of moderate or high structure. However, loglinear analysis indicated that this association varied across schools, suggesting that the same therapist interventions had different in-session outcomes in different schools. The same three interventions were most likely to be followed by high experiencing in all schools: Reflection, interpretation, and provision of information. The common factors implications of this finding are discussed. / Finally, in order to take in-session context into account, a second study examined in-session episodes that represented different experiencing/emotional arousal conditions. Two clinically experienced judges rated 23 aspects of the in-session process (i.e., therapist tasks, client tasks, client focus, and quality of episodes) of 24 such different episodes. Only one aspect emerged as significant: When working with clients at high levels of Experiencing, but without strong emotional arousal levels, therapists were significantly more likely to identify clients' underlying affect than in the other two Experiencing/emotional arousal episode types. No other significant differences were found in the therapist or clients' tasks, client focus, or quality of the different episodes. Several methodological directives are offered for future researchers employing a design similar to that of this second study.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.37821
Date January 2000
CreatorsRogan, Kieron.
ContributorsStalikas, Anastassios (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageDoctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001808331, proquestno: NQ70137, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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