Clients' emotional processing in psychotherapy: a comparison between cognitive-behavioral and process-experiential therapies.
The authors compared clients' emotional processing in good and bad outcome cases in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and process-experiential therapy (PET) and investigated whether clients' emotional processing increases over the course of therapy. Twenty minutes from each of 3 sessions from 40 clients were rated on the Experiencing Scale. A 2x2x3 analysis of variance showed a significant difference between outcome and therapy groups, with clients in the good outcome and PET groups showing significantly higher levels of emotional processing than those in the poor outcome and CBT groups, respectively. Clients' level of emotional processing significantly increased from the beginning to the midpoint of therapy. The results indicate that CBT clients are more distant and disengaged from their emotional experience than clients in PET.
Department of Adult Education, Community Development, and Counselling Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), Toronto, ON, Canada. jewatson@oise.utoronto.ca
Jeanne C
JC
Watson
Danielle L
DL
Bedard
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009629:Person-Centered Psychotherapy; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013811:Psychotherapeutic Processes; D012649:Self Concept; D013223:Statistics as Topic