This study investigated how a therapist and clients created couple
change over the course of 15 sessions of Experiential Systemic Therapy (ExST)
for the marital treatment of alcohol dependency. The aim of this research was
to explore how change occurred during a single case of successful ExST and to
refine and expand ExST theory. ExST has been shown to be an effective
treatment for couple recovery from alcohol dependence yet little research has
focused on how change occurs in ExST.
The case selected for analysis was an exemplar of successful ExST
couples therapy. The case met several criteria for success including therapist
and client satisfaction with therapy, the cessation of alcoholic drinking,
increased marital satisfaction at posttest and follow-up periods, and evidence
of in-session couple change. Two therapy episodes containing relational
novelty (couple change) were analyzed using the Comprehensive Discourse
Analysis procedure.
The results of this study highlighted the existence of a subtype of
relational novelty called syncretic relational novelty. Syncretic change refers to
the generation of intimacy by therapist and couple where initially there existed
disparate beliefs and behaviour that isolated system members.
The study found that the couple’s distance oriented beliefs and practices
were reconciled and intimacy was enhanced through the employment of
intense experiential activities and the provision of a collaborative therapeutic
atmosphere. These two activities fostered increased couple intimacy by
encouraging clients to engage one another through self disclosure, empathy,
shared vulnerability, increased cooperation and greater personal awareness.
Couple intimacy was fostered during experiential activity through a carefully
paced intensification of clients’ thoughts, feelings and physical sensations. In
addition, intimacy was facilitated by the therapist when she accepted clients’
experiences and adopted clients’ language styles. As well as working
collaboratively, the therapist acted as a therapeutic guide interceding during
harmful spousal interactions, altering the therapy agenda at client request,
promoting joint decision-making and valuing marginalized client experience.
Recommendations based on these findings were made for the refinement and
expansion of ExST theory. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/7521 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Newman, Jennifer Anne |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 7188249 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds