Nonverbal synchrony of head- and body-movement in psychotherapy: different signals have different associations with outcome

Abstract

Objective: The coordination of patient’s and therapist’s bodily movement – nonverbal synchrony – has been empirically shown to be associated with psychotherapy outcome. This finding was based on dynamic movement patterns of the whole body. The present paper is a new analysis of an existing dataset (Ramseyer and Tschacher, 2011), which extends previous findings by differentiating movements pertaining to head and upper-body regions.Method: In a sample of 70 patients (37 female, 33 male) treated at an outpatient psychotherapy clinic, we quantified nonverbal synchrony with an automated objective video-analysis algorithm (motion energy analysis). Head- and body-synchrony was quantified during the initial 15 min of video-recorded therapy sessions. Micro-outcome was assessed with self-report post-session questionnaires provided by patients and their therapists. Macro-outcome was measured with questionnaires that quantified attainment of treatment goals and changes in experiencing and behavior at the end of therapy.Results: The differentiation of head- and body-synchrony showed that these two facets of motor coordination were differentially associated with outcome. Head-synchrony predicted global outcome of therapy, while body-synchrony did not, and body-synchrony predicted session outcome, while head-synchrony did not.Conclusion: The results pose an important amendment to previous findings, which showed that nonverbal synchrony embodied both outcome and interpersonal variables of psychotherapy dyads. The separation of head- and body-synchrony suggested that distinct mechanisms may operate in these two regions: Head-synchrony embodied phenomena with a long temporal extension (overall therapy success), while body-synchrony embodied phenomena of a more immediate nature (session-level success). More explorations with fine-grained analyses of synchronized phenomena in nonverbal behavior may shed additional light on the embodiment of psychotherapy process.

Patterns of utilization and a case illustration of an interactive text‐based psychotherapy delivery system

“…In this regard, vocal similarity between therapist and patient has been found to be significantly predictive of a better working alliance and of clients’ perceptions of therapists’ empathy (Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary‐Collins, Bates, & Lee, ; Xiao et al, ). Further, nonverbal synchrony (i.e., co‐ordinated body movements such as eye contact, body posture, facial expression, and head tilt) has been linked to a better working alliance, more positive emotions, a greater sense of treatment credibility, and more successful psychotherapy outcomes (e.g., Dowell & Berman, ; Ramseyer & Tschacher, , ; Sharpley, Halat, Rabinowicz, Weiland, & Stafford, ). Indeed, for patients with difficulties relating to others, such vocal prosody and behavioral synchrony may even help model proper social responsiveness, serving as an implicit therapeutic intervention.…”

How Interpersonal Coordination Can Reflect Psychological Counseling: An Exploratory Study

“…They suggest that higher nonverbal synchrony characterize psychotherapies with higher symptom reduction (Ramseyer . They have also examined nonverbal synchrony between participants during psychotherapy sessions and compared the synchrony of head and body movements (Ramseyer & Tschacher, 2014). They revealed that head-synchrony predicted the global outcome of therapy (overall therapy suc-cess), while body-synchrony did not, and body-synchrony predicted session outcome (immediate session-level success), while head-synchrony did not (Ramseyer & Tschacher, 2014).…”

Modeling Interpersonal Linguistic Coordination in Conversations Using Word Mover’s Distance

“…When people engage in conversations in social settings, they tend to coordinate with each other and show similar behavior in various modalities. This tendency, known as entrainment or coordination, is exhibited through facial expressions [1], head-motion [2], vocal patterns (vocal entrainment) [3,4], as well as the use of language (linguistic coordination) [5]. Linguistic coordination is a well-established phenomenon in both spoken and written communication that has many collaborative benefits.…”