Publication details
I vissuti del terapeuta con i pazienti depressi.
| Title in English | Experience of a therapist with a depressed patient. |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Quaderni di Gestalt |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Psychology |
| Keywords | depression; therapists experience; therapeutic relationship; countertransference; grounded theory method. |
| Description | This study explores the experiential process of psychotherapists during a session with a currently depressive client. Method: 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 Trejectory 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. |