Objective: How are collaborative interactions associated with clients' progress in therapy? This study addressed this question, by assessing the quality of therapeutic collaboration and comparing it passage by passage with the clients' assimilation of problematic experiences in two cases of major depression treated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, one recovered and one improved-but-not-recovered. Method: We u...
Objective: Prior research, mainly conducted on depression, observed that clients' improved capability to process their emotions predicted better therapeutic outcomes. The current comparative study aimed to investigate whether emotional processing was related to therapeutic change in complicated grief. Method: We analyzed two contrasting cases (good or poor outcome) treated with grief constructivist therapy. In ...
Dynamic systems theory suggests that instability can be a key element in the promotion of human change processes. Several studies have confirmed an association between unstable patterns and successful psychotherapeutic outcome. Somewhat similarly, the assimilation model of psychotherapeutic change argues that clinical change occurs through the integration of problematic experiences that initially threaten the s...
Dynamic systems theory suggests that instability can be a key element in the promotion of human change processes. Several studies have confirmed an association between unstable patterns and successful psychotherapeutic outcome. Somewhat similarly, the assimilation model of psychotherapeutic change argues that clinical change occurs through the integration of problematic experiences that initially threaten the s...
Dynamic systems theory suggests that instability can be a key element in the promotion of human change processes. Several studies have confirmed an association between unstable patterns and successful psychotherapeutic outcome. Somewhat similarly, the assimilation model of psychotherapeutic change argues that clinical change occurs through the integration of problematic experiences that initially threaten the s...
The assimilation model describes the change process in psychotherapy. In this study we analyzed the relation of assimilation with changes in symptom intensity, measured session by session, and changes in emotional valence, measured for each emotional episode, in the case of a 33-year-old woman treated for depression with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Results showed the theoretically expected negative relation b...
Aims: The Assimilation model argues that therapists should work responsively within the client’s therapeutic zone of proximal development (TZPD). This study analyzed the association between the collaborative processes assessed by the Therapeutic Collaboration Coding System (TCCS) and advances in assimilation, as assessed by the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES). Method: Sessions 1, 4, 8, 12, ...
Some studies have suggested that a decrease in immersion (egocentric perspective on personal experiences) and an increase in distancing (observer perspective on personal experiences) are associated with the resolution of clinical problems and positive outcome in psychotherapy for depression. To help clarify how this change in perspectives relates to clinical change, the present study compared changes in immersi...
Research on the assimilation model has suggested that psychological change takes place in a sequence of stages punctuated by setbacks, that is, by transient reversals in the developmental course. This study analyzed such setbacks in one good outcome case and one poor outcome case of Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for depression.; This article was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology ...
Some studies have suggested that a decrease in immersion (egocentric perspective on personal experiences) and an increase in distancing (observer perspective on personal experiences) are associated with the resolution of clinical problems and positive outcome in psychotherapy for depression. To help clarify how this change in perspectives relates to clinical change, the present study compared changes in immersi...