Emotion–abstraction patterns in verbatim protocols: A new way of describing psychotherapeutic processes.

Abstract

The goal of the study was to develop a computer-aided system that is able to identify key moments in transcripts from psychoanalytic sessions and to provide an adequate theory of change. The term key moment refers to 1 or more sessions of a treatment or to segments of a session that are seen as clinically important and often considered to be a turning point or breakthrough and that mirror points of insight as they occur in the course of the psychotherapeutic process. It will be shown that patterns built of combinations of the content analysis variable "emotion tone" and "abstraction" allow for describing therapeutic cycles including key moments. The method is shown successfully for a single case and for a sample of improved and not improved patients.

Favouring emotional processing in improvisational music therapy through resonance frequency breathing: a single-case experimental study with a healthy client

“…This automated tool was designed to identify emotion-abstraction patterns in session transcripts, in accordance with the Therapy Cycle Model (TCM; see Mergenthaler, 1996). The TCM and related software are school-independent, meaning they are applicable to a wide range of psychotherapeutic approaches, provided there is sufficient verbal content to be analysed.…”

“…Verbal interactions were analysed with the help of the CM software (version 4.3), a computer-based text analysis tool developed by Mergenthaler (1996Mergenthaler ( , 2008. This automated tool was designed to identify emotion-abstraction patterns in session transcripts, in accordance with the Therapy Cycle Model (TCM; see Mergenthaler, 1996).…”

Importancia de los Cambios Iniciales en la Psicoterapia con Adolescentes

“…Las investigaciones en psicoterapia han identificado que el proceso terapéutico se desarrolla en diferentes fases que se presentan en sucesión jerárquica, donde la primera es requisito de la siguiente (Hill, 2005;Krause y Dagnino, 2005;Krause et al, 2007;Mergenthaler, 1996;Prochaska y DiClemente, 1984). Autores como Howard, Lueger, Maling y Martinovich (1993), Prochaska, DiClemente y Norcross, (1992), Hill (2005) y Krause (2005), han identificado que las etapas iniciales de la terapia son fundamentales para la instalación de la relación terapéutica, el desarrollo y resultados del proceso.…”

Emotion-Abstraction Patterns and Cognitive Interventions in a Single Case of Standard Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

“…A process model that could satisfy these requirements is the therapeutic cycle model (TCM; Mergenthaler, 1985;1996;2008), which is both a general model of therapeutic change and an operational method for conducting standardized exploration of the processes of change occurring either over the course of psychotherapy or at an individual session. The TCM identifies key moments in the psychotherapeutic process that may be measured in terms of level of emotional activation and/or abstract cognitive reflection (Benelli et al, 2012;Mergenthaler, 1996). According to the theory underpinning this model, a clinically significant moment is characterized by the simultaneous presence of high emotional activation and intense abstract thinking.…”

“…Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) assumes that therapeutic change depends mainly on change of cognitive content, while, from a theoretical viewpoint, other processes are excluded. This study aims to explore standard CBT interventions using a model of therapeutic change that includes both emotional and cognitive processes, i.e., the therapeutic cycle model (TCM;Mergenthaler, 1985;1996), which describes the processes of therapeutic change in terms of cycles involving both emotional arousal and abstract thinking activation. We classified standard CBT interventions in three main areas: assessing, disputing, and reframing biased beliefs.…”