title: Therapists' in-session experiences with depressive clients: A grounded theory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study explores the experiential process of psychotherapists during a session with a currently depressive client.
  
  
  METHODS
  Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with 30 therapists and the grounded theory method was used as a methodological framework.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The therapists' experience was conceptualized as Experiential oscillation between getting closer to a client's depressive experience and moving away from it. Its development over the course of a session is depicted by a six-phase Depression Co-experiencing Trajectory model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The resultant theory interconnects different therapists' emotional responses to a depressive client within a coherent process model, which allows us to track the changes in therapists' experiences, to name the relations between them, and to connect them with the therapy's in-session microprocesses.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Masaryk University , Brno , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roubal
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Masaryk University , Brno , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rihacek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy*; D066296:Grounded Theory; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*
keywords: countertransference; depression; grounded theory method; therapeutic relationship; therapists' experience