Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which therapeutic processes – working alliance and depth of experiencing – contributed to outcome. Method Individual differences in these processes were examined at the early and working phases to determine their impact on symptom reduction. An archival data set of N = 42 individuals who underwent emotion‐focused therapy for trauma for childhood maltreatment was used to examine the differential quality of client processes throughout treatment. Results For those who had difficulty forming an alliance early in therapy, alliance scores during the working phase were the best predictor of outcome (β = −.42). This was complemented by a process change of improvement in alliance from the early to working phases (d = 1.0). In contrast, for those who had difficulty engaging in deepened experiencing early in therapy, depth of experiencing in the working phase was the best predictor of outcome (β = −.36). This was complemented by an improvement in depth of experiencing from the early to working phases (d = .69). Conclusions The findings of this study suggest that focusing on the process that clients have trouble with early in therapy contributes to the best treatment outcome. Practitioner points Sometimes early treatment sessions reveal an abundance of one kind of processing but limitations to another, which poses a puzzle for treatment planning. Our findings suggest that within the first four sessions, therapists could develop tailored treatments based on the relative presence or absence of critical therapeutic changes processes. When it becomes evident that therapy is progressing with a weaker alliance between client and therapist, therapists should redouble their efforts in alliance‐building. However, when therapy is developing in a fashion that lacks deep emotional experiencing on the part of the client, treatment efforts should aim to facilitate a richer exploration of moment‐by‐moment experience. As such, our findings suggest relying on the existing processing strengths within a dyad (e.g., emphasis on an already strong relationships, or augmenting an existing aptitude for deeper experiencing) while shortcomings exist in another kind of process is not optimal responding. Therapists should focus their work on the process that clients have trouble with early in therapy to facilitate the best treatment outcome.
The present study examines (a) the unique effects of chairwork on emotional process and intervention outcomes across treatments in the context of individual psychotherapy and (b) how these effects compare to other treatment interventions. Based on the appropriateness of the data available, meta-analyses with estimated effect sizes and narrative syntheses were conducted for psychotherapy process as well as symptom outcomes. Single-session chairwork was found to be more effective in deepening client experiencing than empathic responding (d = .90), although it may have an effectiveness similar to other interventions for facilitating emotional arousal or shifting the credibility of core beliefs. A single session of chairwork also has noteworthy pre-to-post symptom change (d = 1.73), although these improvements may be comparable to other methods of intervention (d = .02). However, when chairwork was used multiple times over the course of a treatment, it accumulated a meaningful effect (d = .40) compared to treatments that did not use chairwork. Therapeutic orientation emerged as a potential moderator. Incorporating chairwork into treatments may bolster process and intervention outcomes. We conclude the article with training implications and therapeutic practices. Clinical Impact StatementQuestions: What are the short-term and long-term effects of using chairwork as a therapeutic method? Findings: Using chairwork offers a large advantage in emotional processing and its immediate impact on symptom change seems to accumulate over the course of treatment. Meaning: Chairwork facilitates the therapeutic process and is related to symptom reductions as much or more than comparison methods. Next Steps: More dismantling research should be conducted to examine the unique contribution of chairwork, but evidence already suggests therapists of various approaches should consider using this intervention.
At the outset, Wilcox et al. ( 2022) distinguish cybervetting from "traditional hiring and selection procedures," which might be a mistake. Their approach implies that cybervetting warrants special consideration when evaluating its appropriateness for making selection decisions, even though it is subject to the same criteria for establishing the validity of personnel selection procedures that more traditional methods are. The evidence laid out by Wilcox et al. establishes that cybervetting is not being used consistently or appropriately-within or between organizations-and there should be a strong recommendation to organizations that they not be used. However, the focal article's recommendations are somewhat lackluster and generic, with advice that organizations adhere to basic personnel selection principles, like establishing an empirical link between cybervetting and job-related outcomes. Although cybervetting is considered to be a new or emerging practice and research area, the fundamental principles and issues affecting fair and accurate decisions are the same for both cybervetting and traditional vetting, and cybervetting has been shown not to follow standardized procedures for avoiding bias in hiring decisions. Rather, cybervetting is a collection of inconsistent, informal, and haphazard methods of data collection that are subject to the personal biases that industrial-organizational psychologists have historically tried to minimize, if not remove, from selection systems.Cybervetting is also not a single methodology. It is a broad categorization of methods that hiring agents engage in that are superficially similar because they make use of computers and reside in the intangible world of cyberspace. However, conducting interpretable validation studies on cybervetting in the same way we might evaluate structured interviews is not appropriate. The examples of Facebook and LinkedIn used in the focal article are understandable, as they are both well known and similar enough to make somewhat fair comparisons (i.e., social information vs. professional information). But the focal article does not mention the larger context and mediums through which cybervetting occurs such as the use of blogs, personal websites, YouTube, Twitter, and Skillshare instructing to name just a few. All of these are "cyberspacy," but that is the only common denominator; they are otherwise incomparable. Their goals, information content, frequency of change, and the manner in which they are accessed are very different. The broad way in which cybervetting is being considered would be akin to combining studies involving cognitive ability tests, personality tests, and in-basket measures and concluding that the results characterize the overall validity of "papervetting." All of this is not to suggest that Wilcox et al. (2022) are not aware or otherwise ignore the need to apply current standards for evaluating selection procedures to cybervetting, only that their recommendations for how cybervetting should be implemented going forward are present...
This chapter defines, illustrates, and reviews the research evidence on the effectiveness of chairwork in individual psychotherapy. Meta-analyses and narrative syntheses were conducted for process as well as symptom outcomes. Single-session chairwork was more effective in deepening client experiencing than empathic responding (d = 0.90) but similarly effective as other methods for facilitating emotional arousal and shifting the credibility of core beliefs. A single session of chairwork also demonstrated noteworthy pre-to-post symptom change (d = 1.73), although these improvements were comparable to those of other methods (d = 0.02). The chapter concludes with diversity considerations, research limitations, training implications, and, based on the research, recommended therapeutic practices.
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