Cardiovascular Correlates of the Psychotherapeutic Process

Abstract

12 medical student volunteers were studied during 10 weekly sessions of brief dynamic psychotherapy using on-line physiological monitoring and concurrent psychotherapy process ratings. Forearm vascular resistance change from baseline for each visit was found to be related to psychotherapeutic outcome, and to some of the process variables, but to be most strongly correlated with clusters of process variables. This suggests that there may yet be a role for physiological monitoring in psychotherapy research.