Effects of varying session length and frequency in brief emotive psychotherapy.

Abstract

This study examined the role of emotional catharsis in brief emotive psychotherapy and its differential effects within three time frames. Forty-one patients at a University Health Service were seen in one of three ways: (a) i hour, twice a week; (b) 1 hour, once a week; or (c) 2 hours, every other week. Duration of therapy (number of weeks) and amount of therapy (number of hours) were not varied. Outcome was asesscd using (a) the sum of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Scales D, ft, and Sc; (b) a personal satisfaction interview; and (c) behavioral target complaints. The amount of emotional catharsis produced in each session was also measured. Patients in the 1-hour group produced the most catharsis and improved the most on the personal satisfaction interview and behavioral target complaints, with high-catharsis patients showing the greatest improvement. Patients in the J-hour group improved the most on the MMPI scales, irrespective of the amount of catharsis produced. These findings are seen as supporting the contention that within a specific time frame emotional catharsis can lead to certain positive outcomes in brief emotive psychotherapy.

Goal agreement and early therapeutic change.

“…The degree of change in the rated severity of the problem over time is considered to be the relief from the problem and is interpreted as an index of treatment outcome (Rosen & Zytowski, 1977). Reliability information, in the form of interrater agreement and stability, as well as concurrent validity evidence in the literature, has been satisfactory (Battle et al, 1966; Bierenbaum, Nichols, & Schwartz, 1976; Mintz & Kiesler, 1982). Concurrent validity studies demonstrate that the Target Complaint taps a broad improvement factor (Mintz & Kiesler, 1982), with a correlation of .61 between patient ratings of improvement on the Target Complaint and therapist global improvement ratings (Hoehn-Saric et al, 1964).…”

A Meta-Analysis of Massage Therapy Research.

“…Minutes of MT per session. It is common for treatment studies in medicine (e.g., Bollini, Pampallona, Tibaldi, Kupelnick, & Munizza, 1999;Yyldyz & Sachs, 2001) and in psychotherapy (e.g., Bierenbaum, Nichols, & Schwartz, 1976;Turner, Valtierra, Talken, Miller, & DeAnda, 1996) to examine dosage as an independent variable. However, no studies concerned with MT have done so.…”

Relationship between patients' in-process evaluations of therapy and psychotherapy outcome

“…The interview protocol seeks to assess patjents' experience of satisfaction in eight different areas of life. Raters scored audiotapes on the basis of a procedure well documented in the literature (Bierenbaum, Nichols, & Schwartz, 1976;Nichols, 1974). Two judges, both of whom had completed 2 years of graduate work in clinical psychology, achieved a reliability of .89 ( p <.05) on a randomly selected sample of 24 tapes scored independently after 12 hours of training.…”