0000000000311981
AUTHOR
Giorgio A. Tasca
Somatic experience of emotion in emotionally focused couple therapy: Experienced trainer therapists' views and experiences.
In general, arousal of emotions is often felt and expressed as a somatic experience in the body. In Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), the deepening of emotional experiencing enables therapeutic change. This research explores the experiences of eight experienced EFT trainer therapists regarding their somatic experiences in their work with couples. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis of transcribed in-depth interviews, this research data yielded three core themes that captured therapists' experiences of using their own and couples' somatic experiences in therapy: (1) the importance and relevance of somatic experiences, (2) therapists' use of their own somatic experiences, a…
Ruptures and repairs of group therapy alliance. An untold story in psychotherapy research.
Although previous studies investigated the characteristics of therapeutic alliance in group treatments, there is still a dearth of research on group alliance ruptures and repairs. The model by Safran and Muran was originally developed to address therapeutic alliance in individual therapies, and the usefulness of this approach to group intervention needs to be demonstrated. Alliance ruptures are possible at member to therapist, member to member, member to group levels. Moreover, repairs of ruptures in group are quite complex, i.e., because other group members have to process the rupture even if not directly involved. The aim of the current study is to review the empirical research on group a…
Self-esteem and binge eating: Do patients with binge eating disorder endorse more negatively worded items of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale?
Objective Self-esteem is a core aspect of eating disorder symptomatology. This study aims to examine whether method effects associated with negatively worded items of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) may interact the negative self-evaluations experienced by patients with obesity and binge eating disorder (BED). We also examined whether negatively worded items were associated with psychological distress and eating symptoms. Method Five hundred thirty three female outpatients (mean age: 42.59) with BED (n = 160) or obesity without BED (n = 373) completed the RSES and measures of interpersonal problems, psychological distress, and eating symptoms. Results Patients with BED responded more…
The alliance-outcome association in group interventions: A multilevel meta-analysis.
Objective: The therapeutic alliance has been studied in group interventions, but its relationship to patient outcome is still controversial. This study systematically reviewed the association of both the member-leader and member-group alliance with patient outcomes, and assessed the effects of several theoretically informed moderators. Method: A three-level meta-analysis was conducted on 57 studies to disentangle within- and between-study variability in the alliance-outcome association. Results: The overall effect size of the unconditional model was r = -.259 (95% CI: -.302, -.214; p < .001), whereas the correlation between alliance and outcome based on the three-level meta-analytic mode…
Does the Interpersonal Model Generalize to Obesity Without Binge Eating?
The interpersonal model has been validated for binge eating disorder (BED), but it is not yet known if the model applies to individuals who are obese but who do not binge eat. The goal of this study was to compare the validity of the interpersonal model in those with BED versus those with obesity, and normal weight samples. Data from a sample of 93 treatment-seeking women diagnosed with BED, 186 women who were obese without BED, and 100 controls who were normal weight were examined for indirect effects of interpersonal problems on binge eating psychopathology mediated through negative affect. Findings demonstrated the mediating role of negative affect for those with BED and those who were o…
Therapists' Perceptions of Online Group Therapeutic Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey-Based Study
Background: In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most group therapists moved their practice to online platforms. Surveys of psychotherapists indicate that many intend to maintain at least part of their practices online after the pandemic. This survey-based study is an attempt to identify therapist experiences with doing group therapy online, and to examine factors that are associated with therapist-rated outcomes. Method: We surveyed 307 group therapists about their ratings of the ease or difficulty in conducting group therapy online versus in-person, and indicators of patient outcomes in online groups. A confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a good fitting three latent factor solution…
The Effects of Attachment, Temperament, and Self-Esteem on Technology Addiction: A Mediation Model among Young Adults
Excessive use of technology has become a worldwide problem due to its high prevalence, fast growth rate, and undesirable consequences. However, little is known about underlying psychological mechanisms that maintain excessive use of technology. We investigated the mediating role of self-esteem, novelty seeking, and persistence on the relationship between attachment dimensions and technology addiction among young adults. Data were collected from 727 young adults (females, N = 478; 66.3 percent), aged 23.44 ± 3.02 years. Participants completed self-report measures of secure and insecure attachment dimensions, personality, and temperament characteristics (i.e., self-esteem, novelty seeking, an…
Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale 12 (ECR-12): An exploratory structural equation modeling study
The Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments of adult attachment and has been widely adopted in psychotherapy research. Composed of two subscales, namely Attachment Avoidance and Anxiety, the ECR was recently shortened to a 12-items version, called the ECR-12. Given the importance of extending knowledge on its applicability in understudied populations, our aim was to validate the ECR-12 in a large sample of Italian native-speakers. A total of 1197 participants (73.2% females; mean age=28.53±11.37 years) completed the ECR-12. Each participant also completed other measures of attachment, psychopathology, interpersonal distress, cop…
Congruence of group therapist and group member alliance judgments in emotionally focused group therapy for binge eating disorder.
We used West and Kenny's (2011) Truth-and-Bias (TB) model to examine how accurately group therapists' judge their group members' alliances, and the effects of therapist-patient congruence in alliance ratings on patient outcomes. Were considered: (a) directional bias - therapists' tendency to over- or underrate their clients' alliances, (b) truth strength - clients' alliance ratings, and (c) bias strength - therapists' tendency to conflate their alliance ratings for a specific group member with the average alliance ratings for the other members of the group. There were 118 obese adult patients with binge-eating disorder that were treated by 8 therapists with Emotionally Focused Group Therapy…
Somatic Interventions and Depth of Experiencing in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), an attachment-based couple therapy, views emotion as being central to the process of therapeutic change. As affect arousal of emotion is a somatic reaction, the purpose of this study was to focus on therapists’ interventions classified as noting and commenting on clients’ somatic cue of emotional experience, such as their facial expression or posture, in relation to depth of emotional experiencing demonstrated by clients in EFT couple therapy sessions. The sample included 13 therapists, each treating one couple during a single EFT training demonstration session. We coded therapists’ interventions (i.e., commenting on one partner’s somatic cue of emo…
Patients with Binge Eating Disorder and Obesity have qualitatively different interpersonal characteristics: Results from an Interpersonal Circumplex study.
Background: Patients with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and obesity experience distressing relationships, which could trigger negative affect and over-eating. To date no studies compared the interpersonal profiles and prototypicality of both groups using the Interpersonal Circumplex.Method: A sample of 177 patients with BED (mean age: 41.0 +/- 12.5 years; 11.3% males), 321 obese non-BED adults (mean age: 44.5 +/- 13.4 years; 28% males), and 108 normal weight adults (mean age: 37.3 +/- 9.6 years; 52.77% males) completed the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32), and scales of binge eating and psychological distress at one time-point.Results: Compared to normal weight and obese participa…
Impact of repeating somatic cues on the depth of experiencing for withdrawers and pursuers in emotionally focused couple therapy
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, an experiential modality, views emotion central to therapeutic change. In this exploratory study, we examined therapists' repetition of somatically focused interventions (therapist verbalizing somatic cues, such as facial expressions) and their impact on clients' emotional experiencing in-session. We also assessed difference for withdrawing versus pursuing partners. The sample included 13 EFT therapists who worked with one couple each for a single session. From transcripts we coded therapists' repetition of somatically focused interventions and clients' depth of experiencing pre-and post-intervention. Multilevel modeling demonstrated that a higher number …
Self-reported reflective functioning mediates the association between attachment insecurity and well-being among psychotherapists.
Objective: Subjective well-being is a crucial variable for mental health practitioners. This study examines the influence of therapists’ attachment dimensions and self-reported reflective functioning on their perceived well-being. Further, it examines if reflective functioning mediates the association between attachment insecurity and well-being. Method: A total of 416 experienced psychotherapists were enrolled in this cross-sectional study, and completed self-report measures of attachment insecurity, reflective functioning, and well-being. We tested the hypothesized mediation model with path analysis that examined indirect effects. Results: Both attachment anxiety and avoidance dimensions …