Search results for "Couples Therapy"
showing 10 items of 13 documents
The Relational Mind in Couple Therapy : A Bateson-Inspired View of Human Life as an Embodied Stream
2018
Research on human intersubjectivity has found that humans participate in a dialogue throughout their life, and that this is manifested not only via language, but also nonverbally, with the entire body. Such an understanding of human life has brought into focus some basic systemic ideas concerning the human relational mind. For Gregory Bateson, the mind works as a system, formed from components that are in continuous interaction with each other. In our Relational Mind research project, we followed twelve couple therapy processes involving two therapists per session, looking at the ways in which the four participants attuned to each other with their bodies, including their autonomic nervous s…
The shift from monologue to dialogue in a couple therapy session: dialogical investigation of change from the therapists' point of view.
2012
As part of a larger research project on couple therapy for depression, this qualitative case study examines the nature of dialogue. Drawing on Bakhtinian concepts, the investigation shows how the conversation shifts from a monologue to dialogue. Among the findings are: first, the process of listening is integral to the transforming experience. That is, the careful listening of the therapist can evoke new voices, just as the experience of one of the partners' "listening in" to the conversation between the other partner and the therapist can create movement and new trajectories. The latter is a qualitative difference between dialogic therapy with a couple and that with an individual. Second, …
The Added Value of Studying Embodied Responses in Couple Therapy Research: A Case Study.
2018
This article reports on the added value of embodied responses identified through sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in couple therapy research. It focuses on moments of change and the timing of therapeutic interventions or therapeutic moves in a couple therapy session. The data for this single-case study comprise couple therapy process videotapes recorded in a multi-camera setting, and measurements of participants' SNS activity. The voluntary participants were a marital couple in their late thirties and two middle-aged male psychotherapists. The division into topic segments showed how the key issue of seeking help, which was found to comprise three separate components, was repeatedly…
Sympathetic Nervous System Synchrony in Couple Therapy
2016
The aim of this study was to test whether there is statistically significant sympathetic nervous system (SNS) synchrony between participants in couple therapy. To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure psychophysiological synchrony during therapy in a multiactor setting. The study focuses on electrodermal activity (EDA) in the second couple therapy session from 10 different cases (20 clients, 10 therapists working in pairs). The EDA concordance index was used as a measure of SNS synchrony between dyads, and synchrony was found in 85% of all the dyads. Surprisingly, co-therapists exhibited the highest levels of synchrony, whereas couples exhibited the lowest synchrony. The client-…
Impact of repeating somatic cues on the depth of experiencing for withdrawers and pursuers in emotionally focused couple therapy
2021
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 …
Somatic experience of emotion in emotionally focused couple therapy: Experienced trainer therapists' views and experiences.
2021
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…
Dialogue and Dominance in Couple Therapy for Depression: Exploring Therapists' Responses in Creating Collaborative Moments.
2019
Previous investigations have found specific communication patterns in couples dealing with depression, specifically when depression concurs with conjugal conflicts. The presence of these patterns can reflect couples' difficulties in engaging in collaborative communication during their sessions, posing a real challenge for therapists. This exploratory study uses a dialogical approach to examine issues of dominance and type of dialogue in two couples who differed in terms of their levels of dyadic adjustment. The therapists' reactions were explored in order to detect the kinds of responses that were most effective at engendering a collaborative attitude in therapy sessions. The method used to…
The Embodied Attunement of Therapists and a Couple within Dialogical Psychotherapy: An Introduction to the Relational Mind Research Project
2015
In dialogical practice, therapists seek to respond to the utterances of clients by including in their own response what the client said. No research so far exists on how, in dialogs, therapists and clients attune themselves to each other with their entire bodies. The research program The Relational Mind is the first to look at dialog in terms of both the outer and the inner dialogs of participants (clients and therapists), observed in parallel with autonomic nervous system (ANS) measurements. In the ANS, the response occurs immediately, even before conscious thought, making it possible to follow how participants in a multiactor dialog synchronize their reactions and attune themselves to eac…
Sympathetic nervous system synchrony: An exploratory study of its relationship with the therapeutic alliance and outcome in couple therapy.
2019
In previous research, we found that sympathetic nervous system synchrony, measured via electrodermal activity (EDA), occurs between participants at the start of couple therapy. The aim now was to test whether this synchrony changes during the therapy process, and how any changes may be related to clients' and therapists' evaluations of the working alliance, and the outcome of therapy. Twelve different couple therapy processes were analyzed (24 clients, plus 10 therapists, working in pairs; hence, 4 persons per session) using EDA concordance indices and questionnaires (Outcome Rating Scale, Session Rating Scale, and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure). EDA synchrony betw…
Korkean vireystason hetket hyvän ja huonon hoitotuloksen pariterapiaprosesseissa
2017
Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tutkia Relationaalinen mieli monitoimijaisten terapiadialogien muutoshetkissä -projektin pariterapioiden tuloksellisuutta sekä pariterapian tuloksellisuuteen vaikuttavia tekijöitä hyvän ja huonon hoitotuloksen pariterapiatapauksissa. Tuloksellisuustutkimuksen perusteella valitsimme yhden hyvän ja yhden huonon hoitotuloksen pariterapiatapaukset. Tutkimuksen aineistona olivat projektiin osallistuneiden pariterapia-asiakkaiden täyttämät Outcome Ratings Scale (ORS)- lomakkeet, Jyväskylän yliopiston tutkimus- ja opetusklinikalla videoidut neljä pariterapiaistuntoa ja terapiaistuntojen ajalta asiakkaiden ihon sähkönjohtavuuden mittaukset. Projektiin osallistuneiden p…