Inner experience and the good therapist.

Gelso, Charles J.; Pérez‐Rojas, Andrés E.

doi:10.1037/0000034-007

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…It may be important for the therapist to allow such reactions into awareness and to be mindful not to take any action in session to relieve discomfort, in particular, at the expense of what the client needs. These strategies are consistent with recommendations for how to manage a range of reactions to clients to benefit therapeutic work (Gelso & Perez-Rojas, 2017). Of course, determining whether these strategies indeed foster therapist cultural comfort remains an area ripe for future study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Development and initial validation of the Therapist Cultural Comfort Scale.

Pérez‐Rojas¹,

Bartholomew²,

Lockard

et al. 2019

Journal of Counseling Psychology

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The development and initial validation of a client-rated measure of therapist cultural comfort (the Therapist Cultural Comfort Scale [TCCS]) is reported. The first phase of the study involved content validation of the initial pool of items via consultation with (a) focus groups of doctoral student therapists and (b) experts in the field of multicultural counseling and psychotherapy. A 56-item pool generated during this phase, together with instruments used to gauge convergent and incremental validity, were administered to a community adult sample of current psychotherapy clients (N ϭ 889). Exploratory factor analysis suggested 2 subscales representing negative and positive indicators of therapist cultural comfort. Item response theory principles guided final selection of subscale items. Analyses suggested good factor stability and reliability of the 13-item TCCS as well as strong measurement invariance across racial/ ethnic minority status and gender. Total and subscale scores related as expected with other measures of multicultural constructs (cultural humility, missed cultural opportunities, and multicultural competencies). Generally, TCCS total and subscale scores also predicted working alliance and treatment progress above and beyond the effects of therapist general comfort. There were few differences in clients' perceptions of therapist cultural comfort based on client demographic characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Public Significance StatementThis study reports the development of the Therapist Cultural Comfort Scale, a new scale designed to measure clients' perceptions of their therapist's cultural comfort during session. Additionally, this study highlights the role of cultural comfort in effective psychotherapy.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Development and initial validation of the Therapist Cultural Comfort Scale.

Pérez‐Rojas¹,

Bartholomew²,

Lockard

et al. 2019

Journal of Counseling Psychology

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“…Although there appears to be a tendency to equate empathy with reflection of feeling (Gelso & Perez-Rojas, in press), we believe this is fundamentally misguided. Empathy is an inner experience, whereas reflection of feeling is an overt expression.…”

Section: Strengthening the Real Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 94%

Strengthening the real relationship: What is a psychotherapist to do?

Gelso¹,

Silberberg²

2016

Practice Innovations

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After being neglected for decades, the real relationship existing between clients and psychotherapists has been the focus of theoretical and empirical attention in recent years. In this article, we discuss whether or not psychotherapists can work deliberately to strengthen the real relationship over the course of treatment. We conclude that the real relationship can be strengthened by the psychotherapist's empathy, consistency/ constancy, management of countertransference, and by being willing to tell the client what the psychotherapist thinks. At times when it is not helpful for the psychotherapist to tell the client what s/he thinks, we discuss the value of the psychotherapist telling the client why s/he will not tell the client. Strengthening the real relationship can be particularly difficult with clients who have a weak or depleted sense of self. A case of such a client is presented with the aim of demonstrating how the real relationship may be strengthened.

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“…To our minds, this is both impossible and undesirable. We are reminded of Winnicott’s (1949) classic paper on hate in the countertransference, in which he clarifies and legitimizes such powerful negative feelings in the therapist when working with certain patients (see Gelso & Perez-Rojas, 2017). In fact, as human beings in intimate contact with the pain and suffering of other human beings, we therapists are bound to experience a wide range of feelings, and feeling warmth toward all aspects of the patient seems to run counter to the concept of genuineness, which is so central to the humanistic/experiential approach.…”

Section: Some Particularsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understandings and misunderstandings about neutrality in an empathic context: Reply to Wachtel (2017) and Goldman (2017).

Gelso

Kanninen

2017

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

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Wachtel (2017) and Rhonda Goldman (2017) have provided thoughtful critiques of our concept of the importance of therapist neutrality within an empathic context. Although there are many points of agreement, our reply highlights our disagreements with these reactions. When accompanied by flexible guidelines, not conflated with uncaring indifference, and offered in a context of what we term an empathic atmosphere, neutrality is a highly effective therapeutic stance. In contrast to Wachtel, we conclude that the therapist can indeed get far in neutral, so long as it is a benevolent neutrality that is marked by therapist empathy, caring, and affirmation.

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Inner experience and the good therapist.

Cited by 12 publications

References 19 publications

Development and initial validation of the Therapist Cultural Comfort Scale.

Development and initial validation of the Therapist Cultural Comfort Scale.

Strengthening the real relationship: What is a psychotherapist to do?

Understandings and misunderstandings about neutrality in an empathic context: Reply to Wachtel (2017) and Goldman (2017).

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