Psychodynamic change in psychotherapy: Cycles of patient–therapist linguistic interactions and interventions

Abstract

Psychodynamic change is understood to occur in part through the unique therapeutic relationship developed between therapist and patient, and the subtle cycles of their conversation from relaxed connection to intense experiencing. The Therapeutic Cycles Model (TCM) (Mergenthaler, 1996 ) and Heidelberg Structural Change Scale (HSCS) (OPD Task Force, 2008 ) were used to investigate therapist-patient dynamic processes across 16 sessions of psychotherapy. The TCM identified interventions of the therapist instigating change in emotion-abstraction patterns. Structural personality change was higher in TCM cycles, and differed according to emotion-abstraction patterns. The interventions of the therapist promoted dynamic structural change in the patient. The findings demonstrate for the first time the interconnection between specific types of therapist and patient dialogue that promote deep changes.

Neuroimaging for psychotherapy research: Current trends

“…One example of how hyperscanning could be applied to the study of psychotherapy process could be for investigations of Resonating Minds Theory (RMT) and the Therapeutic Cycles Model (TCM), which describe models for within-session (or across sessions) process and therapeutic changes that are focused on patient-therapist interactions (McCarthy, Mergenthaler, Schneider, & Grenyer, 2011; Mergenthaler, 2008). Investigation of these models has included simultaneous measures of patient and therapist behaviors (e.g.…”

Early in-session cognitive-emotional problem-solving predicts 12-month outcomes in depression with personality disorder

“…The Therapeutic Cycles Model (TCM) is a computer-assisted text analysis investigating psychotherapeutic processes at the level of the therapist and patient emotionalcognitive dialogue (Mergenthaler, 1996). The TCM may also been used to analyse the dialogue of therapist and patient individually (McCarthy, Mergenthaler, Schneider, & Grenyer, 2011), demonstrating the usefulness of the TCM as a tool to separate therapeutic processes of patient and therapist.…”

Étude des différences linguistiques entre les organisations de la personnalité névrotique et borderline à l'épreuve projective du Thematic Apperception Test /

“…Plusieurs chercheurs se sont intéressés aux variations dans le discours d'une personne en psychothérapie selon les progrès thérapeutiques (Arntz et al, 2012 ; Favero & Ross, 19 2003 ;Grabhorn et al, 2005 ;McCarthy, Mergenthaler, Schneider, & Grenyer, 2011 ; Van Staden & Fulford, 2003). …”

“…Plusieurs chercheurs se sont intéressés aux variations dans le discours d'une personne en psychothérapie selon les progrès thérapeutiques (Arntz et al, 2012 ;Favero & Ross, 2003 ;Grabhorn et al, 2005 ;McCarthy, Mergenthaler, Schneider, & Grenyer, 2011 ;Van Staden & Fulford, 2003). En effet, la situation psychothérapeutique est une expérience où les états mentaux et les contenus intrapsychiques, conscients et inconscients, sont notamment exprimés verbalement, dans des styles linguistiques particuliers (Wiethaeuper, Bouchard, & Rosenbloom, 2004 Ce modèle a, entre autres, permis de développer des recommandations spécifiques au traitement psychothérapeutique des troubles de la personnalité (Clarkin, Yeomans, & Kernberg, 1999;Kernberg & Caligor, 2005;Yeomans et al, 2002).…”