Objective
Perfectionism has been described as a multidimensional core vulnerability factor in various forms of dysfunction and disorders. Recently, we described our empirically ...supported‐dynamic‐relational treatment for perfectionism. This treatment integrates psychodynamic and interpersonal principles to reduce perfectionism and symptoms and enhance relationships with others and self by focusing on underlying relational patterns.
Method
We discuss this approach and present Azure, a 27‐year‐old woman who completed our group treatment and subsequent individual therapy as a follow‐up.
Results
Azure underwent a comprehensive psychological pretreatment assessment, the results of which were used to develop a working formulation that guided the group and individual psychotherapy. A description of the formulation and her experience in therapy are discussed and pre‐ and post‐treatment data illustrate changes in Azure's perfectionism and symptoms.
Conclusions
We discuss changes that occurred over the course of treatment.
Emerging adulthood seems to be a period of not only heightened risk for mental health symptoms, but also growth toward greater well‐being. Mental health disorders are highest among adults ages 18 to ...29 years, yet emerging adults are unlikely to access treatment. However, emerging adults can also experience gains in life satisfaction and interpersonal functioning, and mental health treatment for emerging adults tends to reduce symptoms. This dialectic of risk and growth has prompted a call for a specialty clinical practice focused on emerging adults and highlights a need for treatment effectiveness research that examines symptoms and well‐being. We examined the influence of risk variables on change in a sample of emerging adult clients (N = 187; mean age = 25.82 years; 62.0% female; 75.9% White). Results provide evidence of improvement, conditioned by risk variables. Implications included integrating distinct interventions to reduce symptoms and promote well‐being and addressing intra‐ and interpersonal processes associated with positive development.
Development of modern bioenergetic analysis Guest, Diana; Parker, Jan; Williams, Susan L.
Body, movement and dance in psychotherapy,
10/2019, Volume:
14, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The field of somatic psychotherapy has grown greatly over the past thirty years. Bioenergetic Analysis, founded by Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos in the 1950s, was one of the first such ...modalities. Bioenergetic Analysis has grown and changed over the years, especially in the areas of attachment and attunement by the therapist, the understanding based on neuro-psychology of the difference in working with clients with different levels of self-regulation, and the research into common factors that predict positive treatment outcomes. This article describes modern bioenergetic theory and practice with both a theoretical discussion and case vignettes.
The Generative Presence of Relatedness Spiegel, Eric B.; Baker, Elgan L.
The American journal of clinical hypnosis,
2020 Jul - Oct, Volume:
62, Issue:
1-2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In this guest editorial, the authors introduce a special issue of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis that focuses on relational factors of hypnosis in psychotherapy. The authors have invited a ...number of esteemed colleagues to comment on aspects of the therapeutic relationship, and how it informs and influences the processes, techniques, and outcomes of hypnosis and therapy. In addition to summarizing each of these articles, this article analyzes the major relational themes that present across the articles.
The rapid shift to telemental health (TMH) during the COVID-19 pandemic left mental health providers scrambling to adapt, raising concerns about the effect on the quality of the therapeutic alliance. ...This article explores the impact of TMH on the therapeutic alliance and how relational psychotherapists can support their patients and engage best practices in a way that helps all participants feel connected to the work. It defines the therapeutic alliance, explores the concepts of tasks, goals, and therapeutic bonds, and highlights the importance of developing a positive bond in the context of relational therapy. The paper also describes common challenges encountered while providing psychotherapy virtually, provides guidance on what contributes to a more positive attitude toward TMH interventions, offers a list of recommendations for improving the therapeutic alliance in TMH, and makes recommendations for future study.
This article revisits aspects of the theory and methods of Integrative Psychotherapy as written and discussed by Richard G. Erskine, PhD and others. A case study demonstrates the use of Integrative ...Psychotherapy as the basis for therapeutic interventions that allow the client to interpret early experiences of relational failures, via a relationally based psychotherapy. Revisiting the theory and methods of Integrative Psychotherapy served to further validate the core of IP and its value as a cohesive and comprehensive psychotherapy.
This article explores a particular aspect of cure: the mutual influence of the elaboration of the ego and the self. Starting with Berne's assertion that as therapists we should always aim to cure our ...patients or clients, the author shares some reflections on the relationship between the Adult ego state and the Child ego state and their functional interconnections in therapy. She proposes that curing self-states (working through) can simultaneously orient cure at the level of the Adult ego state (working out). A clinical case illustrates the proposed methodology and some factors promoting cure.
This article develops the idea that hypnosis is an interactive phenomenon occurring in a relational matrix. A tripartite model for explicating this relational matrix is presented, which includes a ...discussion of transference, contemporary relationship factors, and the interaction of these to produce a sense of therapeutic alliance. These relationship factors are central to the therapeutic action of hypnosis as a vehicle to potentiate change and growth. The unique and specific contribution of each of these factors to the process of hypnotherapy and to therapeutic action is examined. Phenomenologically, this relational interaction is conceptualized as occurring in transitional space, shaped by processes of regression and attunement. From this perspective, the hypnotherapist is viewed as a kind of transitional object whose empathic presence contains and facilitates those interactive phenomena which evoke and balance the transferential and contemporary aspects of the relationship and which allow for uniquely evocative developmentally focused interventions in trance work. Several examples are presented from an ongoing case that demonstrate how these relational variables shape the hypnotherapeutic process and how they can be used for uncovering and self-examination, for structural maturation, for affect regulation, and for emerging ego mastery. The therapeutic action demonstrated relies on hypnotic interventions rooted in the various components of the relational matrix made possible by the clinician's awareness of and attunement to these and by hisor her informed and sensitive management of them and of his or her own intersubjectivity. Specific strategies are presented via these examples to effectively utilize this experience in the service of treatment goals.
Unexpected traumatic events, including life-threatening medical conditions, brain injuries, and pandemics, can be catalysts for patients and clinicians to consider existential issues, including ...meaning in life. The existential–humanistic and relational perspectives on therapeutic interventions emphasize creating meaning, taking responsibility for one’s own life and self-narratives, choosing and actualizing ways of being in the world that are consistent with values, and expanding the capacity for agency, commitment, and action. Myriad factors have made the COVID-19 pandemic upsetting and potentially traumatic for individuals, including the novel experience of self and other as possibly infectious and dangerous, a sense that anyone is vulnerable, and protracted uncertainty about the duration of the crisis and its consequences. The vignettes included in this article explore risk and reliance factors relevant to patients with preexisting medical conditions during COVID-19 and highlight the benefits of exploring values, priorities, and assumptions, asking open-ended questions about meaning in life and posttraumatic growth, learning for each emotion, and interpretation of dreams. The existential–humanistic and relational approaches offer unique insights into how practitioners might help their patients to reflect on the unanticipated changes and anxieties ignited by COVID-19, while reinforcing the potential to live with greater purpose and intention.
In Praise of Ambivalence Mazzetti, Marco
Transactional analysis journal,
07/2019, Volume:
49, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
With the help of a clinical case, the author describes the phenomenological experience of ambivalence in the therapeutic setting and discusses its treatment in five steps: (1) recognize and ...legitimize the ambivalence; (2) differentiate between being uncertain and being confused; (3) accept the ambivalence, abstaining from resolving it immediately; (4) respectfully analyze the two poles of the ambivalence; and (5) recognize their fundamental unity because the two poles usually constitute the two faces of the same drive toward well-being. The case study shows how to deal not only with the patient's ambivalence but with the therapist's as well. The model of intervention described shows its usefulness for understanding both the transference and the countertransference dynamics of the therapeutic dyad. Necessary precautions are considered for successful completion of the analytic process, and the usefulness of empathic neutrality toward the two poles of ambivalence is described.
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