Silence

Abstract

There is research evidence, from both qualitative and quantitative studies, that silences in psychotherapy have established associations with good and poor outcomes that extend beyond symptom measures to processes such as insight, symbolization, and disengagement. Research also has demonstrated that therapists attend to clients’ silences, seeking to comprehend the processes therein and intentionally support productive silent processes. This chapter synthesizes this research and examines features of silence processes to provide psychotherapists with the skills to differentiate the functions of both productive and obstructive forms of pausing. It includes a review of 33 quantitative and qualitative studies on silences in individual psychotherapy (from 309 clients and 209 therapists). The qualitative and integrative meta-analytic evidence indicated that when psychotherapists skillfully identified the specific function of silences, they responded effectively to enhance therapy outcomes. The chapter concludes with research limitations, diversity considerations, training implications, and therapeutic practices based on the research evidence.