Verbal response mode use by clients in psychotherapy.

Abstract

Client and therapist verbal behavior in 10 diverse transcripts of psychotherapy was coded according to Stiles's taxonomy of verbal response modes. As found in previous research, therapists of different theoretical persuasions used very different mixtures of verbal techniques. However, clients had similar mode profiles despite the differences in therapist mode use. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the common elements that make verbal interaction psychologically therapeutic lie in the behavior of the client rather than the behavior of the therapist.

Verbal Response Modes as Intersubjective Categories

“…In the client-centered excerpt, the client used K(C) and E(C) to express agreement with therapist Reflections. This secondary pattern-the use of brief Confirmation-intent utterances to express agreement (or disagreement) with therapists' presumptuous utterances (Reflections, Interpretations, Advisements)-is also common in client behavior across schools of therapy (Stiles & Sultan, 1979), although it did not appear in the brief gestalt excerpt above.…”

“…That is, both clients talked primarily about their own private experience (Disclosure intent) and secondarily about objective matters (Edification intent), using first-or third-person declarative sentences. Clients' consistent reliance on the exposition modes, particularly D(D), despite dramatic differences in their therapists' mode use, appears characteristic of verbal psychotherapy (Stiles & Sultan, 1979). In the client-centered excerpt, the client used K(C) and E(C) to express agreement with therapist Reflections.…”

“…The results of coding these excerpts illustrate some of the findings of previous VRM studies of psychotherapy (McDaniel, 19BO;McDaniel, Stiles, & McGaughey, 1981;Stiles, 1979;Stiles, McDaniel, & McGaughey, 1979;Stiles & Sultan, 1979).…”

“…Table 4 gives the VRM profiles for the excerpts coded above. Although the samples were necessarily brief and arbitrarily selected, the results illustrate findings of previous VRM studies of psychotherapeutic dialogue (Stiles, 1979;Stiles & Sultan, 1979). Briefly, (1) in both excerpts, the client's VRM profile was grossly different from the therapist's, (2) the two therapists' profiles were grossly different from each other, and (3) the two clients' profiles were very similar to each other.…”

Behavioral Treatments of Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia: Treatment Process and Determinants of Change

“…Behavior therapists were found to use more supportive communication such as reassurance, praise, and sympathy than psychoanalytic therapists (Brunink & Schroeder, 1979). While clearly differential verbal behavioral styles were found between cognitive-behavioral and insight-oriented therapists, acknowledgement (i.e., active listening) was the most frequent therapist behavior mode, and occurred at about the same rate in both conditions (38% vs. 40% of all responses; Stiles, Shapiro & Firth-Cozens, 1988).…”