Ambivalence resolution in emotion-focused therapy: The successful case of Sarah

Abstract

Although it has been suggested that integrating opposing parts of the self is a necessary process for psychotherapeutic success, a less integrative process of ambivalence resolution may also be an important resource along the process.

Ambivalence resolution in brief psychotherapy for depression

“…Besides starting treatment with different proportions of negotiation, recovered and unchanged cases also differ in terms of the proportion of negotiation across sessions: recovered cases increase its proportion while unchanged cases seem to maintain low levels of negotiation throughout the whole treatment. This result corroborates Braga et al () suggestion that successful ambivalence resolution calls for an increasing negotiation between the opposing positions of the self that are involved in it. This is also in line with EFT's (Greenberg & Watson, ) assumption that the dialogue between positions is essential to emotional processing that, in turn, is crucial for successful therapy, and with the assimilation model's (Stiles, ; Stiles et al, ) proposal of an increasing assimilation of problematic experiences in successful psychotherapeutic processes.…”

“…In unchanged cases, the proportion of dominance is high and stable across sessions, whereas negotiation seems to be virtually absent throughout the entire treatment. Braga et al () had already identified a high frequency of dominance across sessions in a recovered case and this study corroborates this finding. We believe these results encourage a further reflection on the status of the dominance process of ambivalence resolution.…”

“…Besides being in line with the assimilation model's essential premises, the results with the ARCS of Braga et al () were also congruent with EFT's (Greenberg & Watson, ) assumptions that the dialogue between positions contributes to successful therapy because this facilitates emotional processing. However, and while the dominance process actually tended to decrease throughout treatment, it nevertheless maintained a relative high frequency throughout treatment; an interesting result for which the authors offered some speculations.…”

“…The illustrations above are simple examples of momentary resolutions (initially termed micro‐resolutions; Braga et al, ), that is, moments when there is an agentic and determined resolution of ambivalence, even if this is a momentary one (Braga et al, , p. 9). The term momentary resolution is used because each excerpt that is coded as a resolution of ambivalence is assumed to be a temporary resolution, because the client may still display moments of ambivalence (ambivalence markers) after it occurs.…”

“…The client is now able to discriminate between the two voices and the appropriateness of each rather than unthinkingly reacting from the dominant voice's perspective (p. 195). In this sense, the authors argue that “considering that the new position constitutes the client's ideal way to cope with a problematic, suffering‐generating position, its relative dominance along the process is probably necessary and adaptive” (Braga et al, , p. 9). Although attempts at explaining this high dominance frequency were made, only future studies with larger samples could help to empirically address this question.…”