scholarly journals Immersion and distancing across the therapeutic process: relationship to symptoms and emotional arousal

Author(s):  
Eunice Barbosa ◽  
Maria Amendoeira ◽  
Tiago Ferreira ◽  
Ana Sofia Teixeira ◽  
José Pinto-Gouveia ◽  
...  

This study aims to clarify the roles of immersion and distancing (that is, reflection on an experience from an egocentric point of view or as an observer, respectively) on therapeutic change analyzing i) the evolution of these two perspectives across the resolution of a clinical problem, and ii) the relationship between immersion/distancing with symptoms and emotional arousal. We extracted all the passages of speech pertaining to the most relevant clinical problem of a good outcome case of depression undergoing cognitive-behavioral therapy. We assessed the distancing/immersion of these extracts using the Measure of Immersed and Distanced Speech, and emotional arousal with the Client Emotional Arousal Scale-III. The symptoms were assessed from the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Outcome Questionnaire-10.2. Immersion was associated with symptoms and negative emotions, while distancing was associated with clinical well being and positive emotions. Immersion was still dominant when depressive symptoms were below the clinical threshold. Clinical change was associated with a decrease in immersion and an increase in distancing. The dominance of immersion does not necessarily indicate a bad outcome.

Author(s):  
Richard D. Lane ◽  
Lee Ryan ◽  
Lynn Nadel ◽  
Leslie Greenberg

AbstractSince Freud, clinicians have understood that disturbing memories contribute to psychopathology and that new emotional experiences contribute to therapeutic change. Yet, controversy remains about what is truly essential to bring about psychotherapeutic change. Mounting evidence from empirical studies suggests that emotional arousal is a key ingredient in therapeutic change in many modalities. In addition, memory seems to play an important role but there is a lack of consensus on the role of understanding what happened in the past in bringing about therapeutic change. The core idea of this paper is that therapeutic change in a variety of modalities, including behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, results from the updating of prior emotional memories through a process of reconsolidation that incorporates new emotional experiences. We present an integrated memory model with three interactive components – autobiographical (event) memories, semantic structures, and emotional responses – supported by emerging evidence from cognitive neuroscience on implicit and explicit emotion, implicit and explicit memory, emotion-memory interactions, memory reconsolidation, and the relationship between autobiographical and semantic memory. We propose that the essential ingredients of therapeutic change include: (1) reactivating old memories; (2) engaging in new emotional experiences that are incorporated into these reactivated memories via the process of reconsolidation; and (3) reinforcing the integrated memory structure by practicing a new way of behaving and experiencing the world in a variety of contexts. The implications of this new, neurobiologically grounded synthesis for research, clinical practice, and teaching are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-892
Author(s):  
Michal Tannenbaum ◽  
Eden Har

Immigration is a crisis-prone, complex process, often involving the need to acquire a new language, frequently at the expense of the mother tongue. Thus, the phenomenon of immigrants requiring various forms of mental health assistance while having limited fluency in the therapist’s language is widespread. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has become a widely prevalent therapeutic approach in many countries, including countries absorbing immigrants. This article reviews case studies that relate to the use of CBT with immigrants, both in individual and group sessions, focusing on the position of the patient’s mother tongue in the process. Research has persistently shown that the mother tongue is emotionally significant—using it, being exposed to it, expressing emotions and understanding emotions expressed in it, having access to it and to memories encoded in it, and the like. Given these dimensions, it plays a potentially important role in the therapeutic process. The pivotal question, then, is whether a therapeutic process that is essentially emotional can be effective if the mother tongue is not an inherent part of it. This article addresses this issue while examining the mother tongue’s position in CBT, the therapists’ awareness of these issues, the accommodations, if any, made in this regard, the therapists’ point of view, and suggestions for improving the use of CBT with immigrants. It is written to be of relevance to a diverse audience including researchers from varied disciplinary backgrounds, therapists who work with multilingual patients (especially immigrants or members of other minority groups) or are multilingual themselves. Our aims, therefore, are to contribute to the theoretical understanding of the mother tongue’s centrality in emotional processes and to offer some practical recommendations for therapists and training institutions.


Author(s):  
Sandra Sassaroli ◽  
Romina Brambilla ◽  
Eva Cislaghi ◽  
Roberta Colombo ◽  
Eva Cislaghi ◽  
...  

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) assumes that therapeutic change de-pends mainly on change of cognitive content, while, from a theoretical viewpoint, other processes are excluded. This study aims to explore standard CBT interventions using a model of therapeutic change that includes both emotional and cognitive processes, i.e., the therapeutic cycle model (TCM; Mergenthaler, 1985; 1996), which describes the pro-cesses of therapeutic change in terms of cycles involving both emotional arousal and ab-stract thinking activation. We classified standard CBT interventions in three main are-as: assessing, disputing, and reframing biased beliefs. In 10 individual cognitive therapy sessions with a 30-year-old patient affected by a panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA), this study aimed to explore whether cognitive interventions are not only related to abstract thinking but also to the emotional activation phases of TCM. Three inde-pendent judges assessed the presence of cognitive therapeutic interventions using the Comprehensive Psychotherapeutic Interventions Rating Scale (CPIRS; Trijsburg et al., 2002). A software program measured the TCM cognitive and emotional variables. The measures revealed significant correlations between cognitive therapeutic interventions and phases of abstract thinking activation during the therapeutic process. The results clarified the role of cognitive interventions in the therapeutic process as a useful instru-ment aimed to increase reality testing.


1970 ◽  
Vol 117 (539) ◽  
pp. 397-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Ferguson ◽  
M. W. P. Carney

There is a body of opinion which regards psychiatrically ill individuals, or at least one great class or subdivision of them, as suffering primarily from disturbances in personal relationships and social interaction processes generally. Sullivan, Horney and Fromm have made the most significant theoretical contributions to this subject, and empirical applications have been reported by Balint (1957), Maxwell Jones (1968), Rapoport (1960) and Laing (1961). These writers have at least this in common, that they take the point of view that since the pathology of the illness lies in social relationships the fundamental treatment process must lie there also—must, in fact, consist of re-experiencing social interaction within a therapeutic re-educative framework. In the past attention has been directed principally to the doctor-patient relationship as a heuristic model of social interaction, but Rapoport has extended the operational range of significant interaction to include all staff-patient, staff-staff and patient-patient encounters. As the recent Subcommittee of the Central Health Services Council has pointed out (1968), little has been written of the nurse as therapist, but a considerable literature has accumulated concerning the role of the social worker or caseworker or counsellor (e.g. Halmos, 1965). Halmos investigates the nature of such relationships, and finds therapeutic utility to be unrelated to intellectual skills. The therapeutic process is adjudged to lie in the relationship, true enough, but the essential qualities have more to do with the interpersonal styles of the therapist, than with his analytical expertise. Such is his conclusion. Apparently social skills are necessary for the professional worker, but intellectual skills for the problems to be unravelled are of little importance, and are largely irrelevant.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-131
Author(s):  
Anatoly Antonov ◽  
Vera Karpova ◽  
Sofia Lyalikova

Based on a simultaneous husbands and wives survey, the article examines the relationship between the desired and actual level of per capita family income (along with housing conditions) in connection with the spouses’ socio-demographic characteristics. Most families with three and more children are characterized by low incomes, which require the introduction of material compensation as part of social policy. On the other hand, the task of family and demographic policy is to increase the current family need for two children, for which economic incentives are not enough. In this regard, noneconomic measures of influence are required; hence, the focus is on the analysis of value-motivational aspects of behavior, that is spousal self-assessment of desired and actual wellbeing. An increase in the degree of the gap between them first increases reproductive orientations and actual childbearing, and then lowers them. Socially significant is the critical value of the gap - the excess of the desired income over the actual up to three times, which determines the orientation of family behavior. Taking into account this empirical, well-grounded relationship is important from a practical point of view.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostadin Kushlev ◽  
Nina Radosic ◽  
Edward Francis Diener ◽  
Ed Diener

Subjective well-being (SWB) is positively related to helping others, but so far research has not explored the association of individual aspects of well-being with prosocial behavior across the world. We used a representative sample (N = 1,433,078) from the Gallup World Poll (GWP) to explore the relationship between each aspect of well-being and prosocial behavior. We explored these associations between and within 161 countries. We found that different aspects of SWB are not equally associated with prosocial behavior: While life satisfaction and positive affect consistently predicted being more prosocial, negative affect did not consistently predict being less prosocial. Our findings underline the importance of studying the effects of the different components of SWB separately, indicating that, across the globe, it is satisfaction and positive emotions—not the lack of negative emotions—that are associated with being prosocial.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Sacha Stoloff ◽  
Maude Boulanger ◽  
Élisabeth Lavallée ◽  
Julien Glaude-Roy

The teaching profession has been studied and discussed from a problem-oriented point of view and cultivated by a problem-oriented scientific tradition. Years of research have enabled a better understanding of difficult teaching conditions and teachers’ ill-being; an ideological and scientific shift, however, appears necessary to enrich and broaden our present knowledge. One particular question arises: which determinants optimize teachers’ professional well-being? In response, our study seeks to identify indicators that allow teachers to create, maintain or restore a state of professional well-being. Our research objective thus aims to describe teachers’ indicators regarding the “optimal functioning” that characterizes professional well-being (Seligman, 2011). The research protocol targets physical education teachers insofar as they are now recognized as leaders and models for promoting healthy lifestyles in schools and communities (MEQ, 2001). The methodology involved 5 focus groups composed of 37 teachers from 7 regions of Quebec. As the findings indicate, this approach allowed us to paint an integrative portrait of teachers’ indicators relative to professional well-being. Two categories have proved effective in terms of professional well-being: the first is Self and includes 4 variables: meaning, positive emotions, engagement and vitality; the second is Others and includes 3 sub-categories: students, colleagues and school administration. The sub-categories comprise 6 variables divided as follows: positive relationships, learning, collaboration, transfer (specifically for the two first sub-categories), followed by vision and valorization for the third sub-category.


Author(s):  
Kruhlov K.O. ◽  
Blyskun O.O.

Метою дослідження є визначення особливостей суб’єктивного соціального благополуччя молодих співробітників в організації. Методи: аналізування та узагальнення результатів наукових досліджень; «Опитувальник параметрів суб’єктивного соціального благополуччя» (Т.В. Данильченко); методи математичної обробки даних, зокрема порівняльний аналіз за допомогою критерію кутового перетворення Фішера.Результати. Констатовано, що психологічне благополуччя є умовою, чинником та водночас критерієм успішної адаптації співробітника в організації. Визначено, що стан благополуччя створює сприятливі позитивні міжособистісні відносини, можливість спілкуватися, позитивні емоції, тому переважно йдеться про суб’єктивне соціальне благополуччя. Висновки. Виявлено відмінності у проявах показників суб’єктивного соціального благополуччя між групою молодих працівників, які перебувають у процесі трудової адаптації, та більш досвідченими співробітниками, які мають більший стаж роботи, а саме: за параметрами: соціальна помітність, соціальна дистантність, соціальне схвалення, соціальні переконання (р ≤ 0.05), тобто молоді співробітники вважають недостатньою свою соціальну значущість, соціальний престиж та авторитетність з погляду інших осіб; вони відчувають іноді соціальну ізольованість, відчуженість, незадоволеність соціальними стосунками; працююча молодь в оцінках своїх особистісних та професійних якостей переважно орієнтується на сторонні думки колег, керівництва, водночас має позитивні уявлення про якості, чесноти інших осіб та справедливість та контрольованість світу. Отримані дані є корисними для роботи з адаптації молодих працівників в організації.Ключові слова: суб’єктивне соціальне благополуччя, співробітники організації, працююча молодь, молоді співробітники, трудова адаптація. The aim of the study is to determine the peculiarities of the subjective social well-being of young employees in the organization.Methods: analysis and generalization of scientific research results; “The questionnaire of parameters of subjective social well-being” (T.V. Danylchenko); methods of mathematical data processing, the comparative analysis by means of Fisher’s angular transformation criterion, in particular.Results. It has been stated that psychological well-being is a condition, factor, and, at the same time, a criterion of successful adaptation of an employee in the organization. It has been determined that the state of well-being creates favorable positive interpersonal relationships, a possibility to communicate, get positive emotions, satisfy a person’s need for that; therefore, it is mostly about subjective social well-being.Conclusions. Some differences have been revealed in the manifestations of the indicators of subjective social well-being between a group of young workers in the organization, who are in the process of labor adaptation, and more experienced employees, who have more work experience: social noticeability, social remoteness, social approval, social beliefs (p ≤ 0.05), that is, young employees consider their social significance insufficient, social prestige and authority from the point of view of other people; they sometimes feel social isolation, alienation, dissatisfaction with social relations; working youth, in assessing their personal and professional qualities, is mainly guided by the extraneous opinions of colleagues, directorship, and, at the same time, has positive ideas about qualities, virtues of other people, justice and positiveness of the world. The obtained data are useful for work on the adaptation of young employees in the organization.Key words: subjective social well-being, employees of the organization, working youth, young employees, labor adaptation.


Author(s):  
Collie W. Conoley ◽  
Michael J. Scheel

This chapter provides an overview of the philosophy and foundational premises of Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy. Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy is described as a comprehensive psychotherapy model built primarily upon positive psychology principles to optimize well-being, which diminishes the effects of psychological distress. The theory of change is the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions. The therapeutic process promotes client strengths, hope, and positive emotions in order to assist the client in attaining goals, making growth toward goals in psychotherapy and life more enjoyable. Issues of ethics, psychological metaphor, therapeutic alliance, client context, and a case example of a client with posttraumatic stress disorder are presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Zuleyha Sakar ◽  
Figen Akca ◽  
Aysegul Bozkurt

Emotional abuse can be defined as a large behavior pattern which the individual is exposed to and can be compiled as, the abasement, violent attitude, exclusion, continuous criticism, unfulfilled need for love and making someone feel worthless. From this point of view the effect on the well being is a key concern about the individuals exposed to emotional abuse. Accordingly the purpose of this study is determined as to analyze of the relationship between the level of emotional abuse and well being of teacher candidates perceive. For this purpose 438 teacher candidates, who study at the Faculty of Education in Uludağ University, were utilized in the study. In the research descriptive method was used and the data was obtained by “Perceived Emotional Abuse Scale” (Ersanlı, Yılmaz, & Özcan, 2013) and “Psychological Well Being Scale” (Telef, 2013). According to the findings obtained in order to determine the relationship between the psychological well being and the emotional abuse that teacher candidates perceive, correlation and simple linear regression analysis were performed and it is found that there is a significant negative relation in between (p<.01). In addition in terms of the variables of gender, developmental period they are in, department and the level of academic success they perceive, it is discovered that the levels of perceived emotional abuse predict their psychological well being between 12% and 24%.


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