title: Resolving unfinished business: relating process to outcome.
abstract: This study related the process of the resolution of unfinished business with a significant other to therapeutic outcome in a population of 26 clients who suffered from various forms of interpersonal problems and childhood maltreatment. Clients were treated in emotion-focused, experiential therapy with gestalt empty-chair dialogues. Those clients who expressed previously unmet interpersonal needs to the significant other, and manifested a shift in their view of the other, had significantly better treatment outcomes. The presence of the specific process of resolution in the clients' empty-chair dialogues was also found to be a better predictor of outcome than the working alliance. Degree of emotional arousal was found to discriminate between resolvers and nonresolvers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Leslie S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.forename: Wanda
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Malcolm
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005864:Gestalt Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011340:Problem Solving; D011379:Prognosis