Standard posture, postural mirroring and client-perceived rapport

Counsellor facial expression and client-perceived rapport

“…The Standardized Client (STC) is a research confidant who is trained to present the same counselling problem across a series of interviews, while also making assessments of rapport each minute during the interviews. As mentioned above, the STC was developed to enhance the reliable assessment of the effects of specific counsellor behaviours during initial therapy interviews (Sharpley & Ridgway, 1992;Sharpley et al, 1994), and has demonstrated high reliability (test-retest, alpha) and validity (construct, content), enabling it to be applied to a range of counsellor behaviours such as verbal responses (Sharpley et al, 2000) posture and forward lean (Sharpley et al, 2001), eye contact (Sharpley & Sagris, 1995) and silence (Sharpley, 1997). The present study was a further step in this programme of research.…”

“…Mehrabian (1980) suggested that nonverbal counsellor behaviour could be responsible for over half of the affective content in counsellors' interactions with their clients. Some of the more salient of these nonverbal behaviours that have been shown by previous research to influence the counsellor-client relationship are eye contact (Sharpley & Sagris, 1995) and counsellor posture and forward lean (Sharpley, Halat, Rabinowitz, Weiland, & Stafford, 2001). However, of the various nonverbal behaviours that counsellors might engage to facilitate the therapeutic relationship, facial expression has been suggested as being the most powerful, with Mehrabian (1971) maintaining that facial expression contributes about fifty-five percent of total liking.…”

“…The present study is one in a series designed to investigate the effects of various counsellor behaviours upon client perceptions of rapport during initial interviews (e.g., Sharpley, 1997;Sharpley et al, 2000;Sharpley et al, 2001). To achieve this end, we developed and field-tested a procedure for training a ''standardized client'' (STC) to make minute-by-minute assessments of their perceptions of rapport as they experienced it during initial counselling interviews lasting about 45-50 minutes and reported in detail elsewhere (Sharpley, Guidara, & Rowley, 1994;Sharpley & Ridgway, 1992).…”

Communication in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

“…There is ample evidence that individuals in interpersonal interactions tend to mimic and imitate one another's posture and movements in an intricate dance of mirrored actions (Sharpley et al 2001;Bargh et al 1996). Gallese (2001) and Kerr (2008) define this phenomenon as "embodied simulation."…”

Understanding rapport-building in investigative interviews: Does rapport's effect on witness memory and suggestibility depend on the interviewer?

“…Original attachment theorists Bowlby and Ainsworth argued that all people, from infants to the elderly, seek to establish an affective attachment with another to meet needs of psychological and physical security (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978;Bowlby, 1988). This bond component of the working alliance is strongly correlated with rapport in a clinical context (Sharpley, Guidara & Rowley, 1994;Sharpley, Halat, Rabinowicz, Weiland & Stafford, 2001). …”