One step further in assessing how interpretations influence the process of psychotherapy

Therapist Affect Focus and Patient Outcomes in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Meta-Analysis

“…Of the 66 articles among them that appeared to potentially meet inclusion criteria, 53 were eventually excluded. Of the remaining 13 publications (13,(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), some contained overlapping or identical samples, resulting in a total of 10 independent samples. Information about the 13 articles is briefly summarized in Table 1 (a more detailed description of the articles is provided in a data supplement that accompanies the online version of the article).…”

“…The average weighted effect size, 0.31 (95% CI= 0.13-0.47), was statistically significant, and the test of homogeneity was not statistically significant at 3.89. The meta-analysis for the remainder of the samples (those that used a single outcome construct or an unclear outcome construct) had a total of four independent samples (19,22,23,25,28) with a total sample size of 71 and an average sample size of 18 (SD=5). The average weighted ef- (19) Brief psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy McCullough et al 1991 (26) Two forms of brief psychodynamic therapy r=0.51, N=16 Mintz 1981 d (27) Brief psychoanalytic psychotherapy Mean r=0.26, mean N=16 Piper et al 1987 (28) Psychoanalytically oriented, short-term individual psychotherapy r=0.59, N=19 Strupp 1980 (29, 30) Time-limited psychoanalytic psychotherapy r=0.59, N=4 a A detailed version of this table is available in a data supplement that accompanies the online version of the article.…”

Complementary therapeutic relationship: Therapist behavior, interpersonal patterns, and therapeutic effects

“…For example, a therapist saying with a rather annoyed voice that the patient does not need to do anything may be complementary to the Plan of not being overstrained as far as the verbal content goes but anticomplementary on the nonverbal level. The distinction between verbal content and nonverbal expression, which affects therapy on a process level, is further explained in Caspar et al (2000).…”

Training Undergraduate Students to Use Interpretation

“…In addition, interpretations appear related to both proximal and sustained positive effects on client functioning (Caspar et al, 2000;Hoglend et al, 2008;Silberschatz, Fretter, & Curtis, 1986). However, although newly gained insight can give clients a sense of empowerment and motivation for change, the novel information shared and received in the interpretation process may also frighten, anger, or sadden clients.…”