Enhancing working alliance through positive emotional experience: A cross-lag analysis.

Although psychotherapy research has traditionally focused on decrease in distress, emotion research suggests the important role of positive emotional experience in healing and growing. Objective: The present study investigates the relationship between positive emotional experiences and working alliance. Method: We chose to investigate this relationship in accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), taking advantage of the modality's focus on both negative and positive emotional experiences. Fifty-eight clients receiving 16-sessions individual AEDP reported on their post-session levels of working alliance and positive emotions (enlivenment affect, positive relational affect, and peacefulness). The alliance-emotion relationship for each emotional categories was tested with separate disaggregated cross-lagged panel models. Results: Across the three categories, higher positive emotions at the end of the previous session were associated with higher working alliance at the end of the next session. On the other hand, working alliance did not contribute to any of the positive emotions in the next time point. Furthermore, the three emotion categories showed different patterns of development. Conclusion: The findings suggest that fostering positive emotions may be a promising venue to enhance working alliance. Furthermore, differentiating specific positive emotions is likely important both for research and practice.

Enhancing emotion regulation.

Background: Emotion regulation (ER) refers to the process of modulating an affective experience or response. Objectives: This is a systematic review of the research on therapist methods to facilitate patient ER, including affect-focused, experiential methods that aim to enhance immediate patient emotion regulation, and structured psychoeducation, skills training in ER. Method: A total of 10 studies of immediate and intermediate outcomes of emotion regulation methods were examined. A total of 38 studies were included in the meta-analysis of distal treatment effects on emotion regulation. Results: In eight studies with 84 clients and 33 therapists, we found evidence of positive intermediate outcomes for affect-focused therapist methods and interpretations. A meta-analysis of 26 studies showed that the average effect size of ER methods from pre- to post-treatment was large (g = 0.82). Conclusions: Both affect-focused and structured skill training are associated with distal improvements in emotion regulation. When working with ER in psychotherapy, therapists must consider how patients' cultural backgrounds inform display rules, as well as what might be considered adaptive or maladaptive. The article concludes with training implications and therapeutic practices based on the research evidence.

The long-term outcome of accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy: 6- and 12-month follow-up results.

Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP; Fosha, 2000, 2021b) is an integrative, healing-oriented, mind-body, affect-focused therapy. A posttreatment outcome study demonstrated AEDP's effectiveness (Iwakabe et al., 2020) on a variety of measures of psychological functioning. This study sought to address AEDP's long-term effectiveness. As previously reported, 63 adult patients completed a 16-session AEDP treatment with qualified therapists in private practice in the United States, Canada, Israel, Japan, and Sweden. Forty patients responded to 6-month follow-up and 52 responded to 12-month follow-up. Results indicate that patients maintained their posttreatment therapeutic gains, both 6 and 12 months later. Large effect sizes (d = 0.74 to d = 1.60) both for reductions on measures of psychopathology (e.g., depression, negative automatic thoughts, experiential avoidance) and improvements on measures of positive mental health (e.g., well-being, self-compassion) were obtained. Patients with more pervasive and severe problems tended to have larger effect sizes (all ds > 1.0) and a larger proportion of them achieved clinically significant change over 6 and 12 months than patients with subclinical symptomatology. Piecewise growth modeling was used to confirm these results, with attrition over the follow-up period taken into account. Consistent with the above findings, piecewise growth modeling similarly showed that patients significantly improved from pre- to posttreatment and maintained gains from posttreatment through the 6- and 12-month follow-up. These results provide empirical support for the long-term effectiveness of AEDP for alleviating a variety of psychological problems and enhancing positive functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The effectiveness of accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) in private practice settings: A transdiagnostic study conducted within the context of a practice-research network.

Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) is an integrative model of psychotherapy that brings together relational and experiential work, with the aim of not only alleviating suffering but also bringing about flourishing. The present study took place within a developing AEDP practice research network and examined outcomes for 62 self-referred adults treated using a 16-session format of AEDP treatment. Participants completed self-report measures before and following treatment. Measures assessed a variety of psychological problems, subjective distress, as well as aspects of positive psychological functioning. Treatment occurred in naturalistic independent practice outpatient settings in the United States, Canada, Israel, Japan, and Sweden. Large effect sizes (d > 0.80) were obtained for clinical problems and subjective distress. The majority of patients evidenced clinically reliable change according to Jacobson, Roberts, Berns, and McGlinchey's (1999) criteria. Effectiveness was further examined by dividing the sample into a clinical group with pervasive and severe problems and a subclinical group with fewer problems and mild severity. Within the clinical group, total and global scores on all measures improved significantly following treatment. Effect sizes were d > 1.00 for all scales. The subclinical group also demonstrated significant improvements, with effect sizes ranging from d = 0.46 to d = 2.07. These results provide initial empirical support for the effectiveness of AEDP as a model of therapy that can effect meaningful and significant improvements across a range of psychological symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Is integrative use of techniques in psychotherapy the exception or the rule? Results of a national survey of doctoral-level practitioners.

This study sought to investigate the extent to which therapists endorse techniques outside of their self-identified orientation and which techniques are endorsed across orientations. A survey consisting of 127 techniques from 8 major theories of psychotherapy was administered via U.S. mail to a national random sample of doctoral-level psychotherapy practitioners. The 201 participants endorsed substantial numbers of techniques from outside their respective orientations. Many of these techniques were quite different from those of the core theories of the respective orientations. Further examining when and why experienced practitioners switch to techniques outside their primary orientation may help reveal where certain techniques fall short and where others excel, indicating a need for further research that taps the collective experience of practitioners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Teaching clinical research on psychodynamic psychotherapy to psychiatric residents.

This article describes a course, Clinical Research in Psychotherapy, taught to PGY-3 residents at the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College. The course addresses existing research in outcome and process in psychotherapy, concepts important in research design, and assessment of results of psychotherapy research. It also explores how knowledge of research can enhance clinical practice. The authors believe that teaching psychotherapy research to residents will aid the development of a generation of clinicians who can best recognize the value of a psychodynamic approach for patients.

A quality-based review of randomized controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression: an assessment and metaregression.

OBJECTIVE: The authors assessed the methodological quality of randomized controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression using the Randomized Controlled Trial Psychotherapy Quality Rating Scale (RCT-PQRS). They then compared the quality of CBT trials with that of psychodynamic therapy trials, predicting that CBT trials would have higher quality. The authors also sought to examine the relationship between quality and outcome in the CBT trials. METHOD: An independent-samples t test was used to compare CBT and psychodynamic therapy trials for average total quality score. Metaregression was used to examine the relationship between quality score and effect size in the CBT trials. RESULTS: A total of 120 trials of CBT for depression met inclusion criteria. Their mean total quality score on the RCT-PQRS was 25.7 (SD=8.90), which falls into the lower range of adequate quality. In contrast to our prediction, no significant difference was observed in overall quality between CBT and psychodynamic therapy trials. Lower quality was related to both larger effect sizes and greater variability of effect sizes when analyzed across all available comparisons to CBT. CONCLUSIONS: On average, randomized controlled trials of CBT and of psychodynamic therapy did not differ significantly in quality. In CBT trials, low quality appeared to reduce the reliability and validity of trial results. These findings highlight the importance of discerning quality in individual psychotherapy trials and also point toward specific methodological standards for the future.