Trainee therapists’ views on the alliance in psychotherapy and supervision: a longitudinal study

The shape of alliance in psychotherapy and supervision using growth curve modeling was examined for clinically inexperienced trainee therapists, who were engaged in long-term cognitive behavioral - or psychodynamic individual psychotherapy at a Psychology Clinic in Sweden. Trainee therapists rated their view of the alliance with their clients and their supervisors on the Working Alliance Inventory at five time points. The alliance to the client show a consistent, positive development throughout the therapy. The alliance to the supervisors show initially a decrease, followed by an increase, and then again, the rate of increase in the supervisory alliance ratings slowed down indicating a more complex view of the supervisory alliance compared to the view of the alliance in psychotherapy.     

Overtraining and the complexities of coaches’ decision-making: managing elite athletes on the training cusp

In many elite sport performance contexts, overtraining is a critical issue for coaches to understand, recognise and respond to. While the indicators and effects of overtraining have attracted considerable research interest, there are no diagnostic tests that reliably predict impending overtraining. This study explores the practices and beliefs of three highly successful professional elite rowing coaches as they predict and manage the risk of athlete overtraining during crucial periods of intensive training. These coaches took part in a series of semi-structured interviews that explored their practices, philosophies and experiences. The research draws on sociological perspectives pertinent to coaching pedagogy and, more specifically, the tenets of naturalistic decision-making in exploring how the coaches define and make decisions about overtraining. In doing so it recognizes that coaching involves decision-making in complex and demanding situations. The coaches were found to monitor the fatigue of their rowers through observation, communication and measures of training pace. In general, the intuitions and cues that were used by coaches had little in common with overtraining markers or indicators that are promoted in the sport science literature. Coaches’ decision-making was based largely on subjective information and processes that were influenced by a range of stressors unique to their positions. We contend that the research provides an important new perspective on coaches’ definitions and management of overtraining and enables management of overtraining to be better understood as a key element of coaching pedagogy in elite performance settings. In this article we argue successful coaches have unique insights into this topical area and this is worthy of future exploration.     

Handling Anomalous Data in the Lab: Students’ Perspectives on Deleting and Discarding

Science and Engineering Ethics - This paper presents and discusses empirical results from a survey about the research practice of Danish chemistry students, with a main focus on the question of...     

An existential-phenomenological perspective on the concept of ‘resistance’ in counselling and psychotherapy

The various phenomena that are categrised under the label of ‘Resistance’ are of central concern to most models of counselling and psychotherapy. The manner in which resistance is conceptualised has vital implications for therapists approach to the therapeutic relationship. The theory of resistance in classical Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (and particularly Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy) is examined and then compared to the radical reinterpretation possible in an Existential-Phenomenoogical perspective which promotes the rejection of the role of ‘therapist as expert change agent’.     

One size doesn’t fit all: the influence of supervisors’ power tactics and subordinates’ need for cognitive closure on burnout and stress

The present research investigated the notion of fit between supervisors’ power tactics and subordinates’ need for cognitive closure (NFCC) on subordinates’ burnout and stress. Subordinates who tend to avoid ambiguity (high NFCC) were expected to experience relatively less burnout (Study 1) and stress (Study 2) if their supervisors utilize harsh (controlling and unequivocal) power tactics and more burnout and stress if their supervisors utilize soft (autonomy-supportive and equivocal) power tactics. In contrast, it was expected that subordinates who avoid firm and binding conclusions (low NFCC) would experience relatively less burnout and stress if their supervisors use soft power tactics and more burnout and stress if they use harsh power tactics. Two studies conducted in diverse organizational settings supported these hypotheses. Collectively, these results support the conclusion that soft (vs. harsh) power tactics are not always associated with better (vs. worse) organizational outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications for organizations are discussed.     

A healing relationship: Clients’ experiences of the long-term relational significance of the horse in horse assisted psychotherapy

Horse assisted psychotherapy is a type of treatment for mental ill-health in which the client forms a relationship with a horse. Research suggests that the relationship to a horse is very helpful to clients, but how the horse is experienced many years after the end of treatment has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate how former clients from horse assisted psychotherapy experienced the horse several years after treatment was completed. Former clients (n = 5; all females) from one and the same treatment center were interviewed and the data was analyzed with an inductive thematic approach. The analysis showed that many years after completion of treatment, the horses were still remembered as the most important individuals in the informants’ lives during the time of treatment. This was captured by the core category ‘A healing relationship’. These findings are in line with previous research that found that patients in horse assisted psychotherapy and their family members attributed improvements from treatment to the patients’ relationship to the horses, but adds that the clients also keep these views at follow-up several years after termination of treatment.     

Therapists’ perspective on the therapeutic relationship: Examining a tripartite model

The components of a tripartite model of the therapeutic relationship, namely the working alliance, the transference configuration (transference and countertransference), and real relationship, were examined in terms of how they relate to one another and to the outcome of a psychotherapy session, from the therapists’ perspective. Although previous studies have examined these components separately, no study to date has examined the components together in their relation to session outcome. Licensed psychotherapists (n = 249) were recruited from two Divisions of the American Psychological Association. Therapists completed measures for the last session they had with a client. Results revealed that from the therapist’s perspective the real relationship and working alliance related positively to session outcome, and countertransference behavior related negatively to session outcome. The components related to each other mostly as predicted by the tripartite model, and a principal-axis factor analysis revealed the presence of four distinct factors resembling the components theorized to comprise the tripartite model. The components together accounted for 27% of the variance in session outcome and only the real relationship and the working alliance predicted session outcome when all the components were looked at simultaneously in a regression model.     

Developmental and cognitive perspectives on humans’ sense of the times of past and future events

Mental time travel in human adults includes a sense of when past events occurred and future events are expected to occur. Studies with adults and children reveal that a number of distinct psychological processes contribute to a temporally differentiated sense of the past and future. Adults possess representations of multiple time patterns, and these representations take several different forms. Memory for the times of past events is built upon reconstruction of temporal locations, impressions of distances in the past, and order-codes. The times of future events are understood primarily as locations in represented time patterns, but propositions active in memory contain information that particular events are coming soon. Young children have difficulty distinguishing the past–future status of some events, showing that basic memory processes do not make the distinction clear. Concepts of the past and future may be required for differentiating these two categories of experience.     

Therapists’ perspectives about working with meaning in life in psychotherapy: A survey

Of 212 practicing therapists who completed a survey about working with meaning in life (MIL) in psychotherapy, 129 (61%) had recently worked with MIL with at least one client and reported on their work with a client in this survey. Those therapists who had worked with a client on MIL as compared with those who had not were older, more experienced, more humanistic/existential/experiential in orientation; reported more MIL training; and felt more competent working with MIL. Clients reported on primarily had internalizing, interpersonal, and career issues. Only 12% of clients explicitly labeled MIL as an issue coming into therapy. The three most frequently used interventions involved offering support; helping clients examine thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to discover hopes and goals; and facilitating exploration of MIL cognitions and experiences. Therapists reported many positive consequences from working with MIL. Therapists reported minimal training in MIL and moderate competence in working with MIL. Implications for practice, training, and research are presented.     

Digital lives in psychotherapy: ‘the other in the room’

Within the broader area of digital risk, there has been concern over the phenomena of ‘cyber suicide’, a completed or attempted suicide influenced by the internet. We propose a theoretical explanation of the ‘ambivalent self’ in people who go online searching for suicide, by introducing the concept of an inner split between the ‘suicidal part’ (SP) and ‘non-suicidal part’ (NSP) within the personality structure of the individual which struggle for domination of the inner life and external relationships and decisions of the suicidal person. This is grounded in psychoanalytic theory and draws upon a broader conceptualisation of the psyche of the self as split between rival parts, and differing states of mind, competing for control of the vulnerable individual and their capacity to tolerate and manage emotional pain and reality. The recognition and awareness of an inner split between the SP and NSP of the person who goes online, and how this influences virtual relationships, as well as external relationships, such as in psychotherapy, is an important understanding for contemporary psychotherapy and risk management in the digital age.     

To the Nothingnesses Themselves: Husserl’s Influence on Sartre’s Notion of Nothingness

In this article I argue that Sartre’s notions of nothingness and “negatity” are not, as he presents it, primarily reactions to Hegel and Heidegger. Instead, they are a reaction to an ongoing struggle with Husserl’s notion of intentionality and related notions. I do this by comparing the criticism aimed at Husserl in Sartre’s Being and Nothingness to that presented in his earlier work, The Imagination, where he discusses Husserl more elaborately. Furthermore, I compare his criticism to Husserl’s own criticism of the “doctrine of immanent objects”, in order to show that Sartre’s notion of nothingness is a continuation of Husserl’s criticism, and that he turns Husserl’s own arguments against himself.     

Social Influences on Students’ Academic Engagement and Science Achievement

The aim of this study was to examine the role of social support from parents, teachers, and peers in students’ engagement and achievement. Filipino secondary school students (N?=?1,694) participated in this study and answered questionnaires assessing their levels of perceived social support and academic engagement. A standardized science achievement test was also given. Results showed that students who perceived higher levels of social support from parents, teachers, and peers were more engaged and had higher achievement scores. More interestingly, peer support seemed to be more salient compared to parental and teacher support. Implications are discussed.     

‘A kaleidoscope of themes’: intensive psychotherapy with a girl on the autistic spectrum

This paper is an account of the intensive psychotherapy of a young girl on the autistic spectrum. It describes her confusing presentation and how this suggested a tendency to oscillate between mainly unintegrated states of mind. Important themes that emerged included the phantasy of inhabiting a claustrum; the use of adhesive identification to defend against the bodily felt terror of separation; and fear of damage to the maternal object. The paper also discusses the trans-generational aspects of her difficulties and considers how her therapy helped growth to take place.     

‘Critical psychotherapy,’ ‘postpsychotherapy,’ and the cult of technicism

This paper about the terms ‘critical psychotherapy’ and ‘postpsychotherapy’ argues that the terms ‘critical psychology,’ ‘critical psychiatry,’ and ‘postpsychiatry’ are already in use, and we can see the new terms – ‘critical psychotherapy’ and ‘postpsychotherapy’ – as additions to this already existing family of terms. However, this paper also argues that what is of most importance is not the case for using these new terms, but the tendencies and features these terms might be taken to refer to. The paper begins with an experience the author had while working as a counsellor some years ago. The terms listed above are explored, as are the roots of ‘critical psychotherapy’ in psychoanalysis, before providing an example of how a philosopher’s work might be relevant to psychotherapists.     

TheoArtistry: practical perspectives on ‘theologically informed art’

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the TheoArtistry Composers’ Scheme (2016–2018), in light of the developing concept of ‘theologically informed art’. Based at the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts (ITIA) (University of St Andrews), the scheme partnered emerging theologians and composers to create six new choral settings of Hebrew Bible ‘annunciations’. In addition to producing new music, the project became a practical touchstone for reinvigorating dialogues between theologians and practising artists, as well as Christians and non-Christians. First, the author assesses the scheme’s contributions to the study and practice of theologically informed art in the future. Second, she outlines some methodological issues associated with the scheme’s unique breadth of participants. Finally, she assesses ecclesiological and theological ambiguities within the scheme. The author argues that clarifying these ambiguities expands horizons for future collaborations in theologically informed art.     

To whom does the unconscious belong? The interface between the private and the social dimension in psychotherapy practice

This paper explores how ‘the social unconscious’, namely the influence of society and politics, impacts upon clinical thinking and practice. The author argues that insufficient attention is paid to the influence of the psychosocial dimension and there is a methodological awkwardness in knowing how to conceptualize it. Furthermore it is argued that psychodynamic practice, with its emphasis on the exploration of the individual psyche, tends to disregard social engagement as a criterion of mental health.

Three clinical examples are cited to demonstrate how the influence of politics and society can enter the psychotherapeutic dialogue. A methodology is then proposed using Bion's formulations about binocular vision, to examine the patient-therapist pair from the perspective of a small work group in society.