Moments of empowerment: A qualitative analysis of positively experienced episodes in brief person‐centred counselling

Abstract

38 positively experienced episodes in brief person‐centred counselling with six clients were analysed. The Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) method was used as the prime research tool. Clients were asked to identify positively experienced moments in the counselling session during a post‐session review interview. Clients and counsellors were invited to report on the feelings, perceptions and intentions they recalled experiencing during these moments. Three analyses were used to categorise the meaning and feeling quality of these moments, and a taxonomy of types of positively experienced episodes was also created. The most frequently reported positive client experiences were associated with empowerment, safety and insight. Other significant themes emerging from the analysis included: freedom in the relationship, shortcomings of the relationship, assurance of the relationship, unfolding of the client's personal meaning, and the importance of the counsellor's presence. Taxonomy of episodes revealed nine categories: four of them focused on the strengthening of the therapeutic relationship, and five focused on the empowerment of the client's self. These findings are discussed, and implications for theory and practice explored.

Humanistic psychotherapy research 1990–2015: From methodological innovation to evidence-supported treatment outcomes and beyond

“…For anxiety problems (especially panic and generalized anxiety), Elliott et al (2013) reported large pre-post effects, moderate controlled effects, but consistently poorer results when compared to CBT. Although researcher allegiance effects are a factor, Elliott et al (2013) argued that more work is required to develop more effective process-guiding approaches, as indicated by evidence now emerging from ongoing research (Timulak & McElvaney, 2012). At this point, however, based on the available evidence, the use of traditional humanistic therapies can only be justified as second-line treatments for clients who have also tried or refused CBT.…”

Qualitative meta-analysis of insight events in psychotherapy

“…We then reduced our selection to seven studies (see Table 1) as three of the studies (Timulak, Belicova, & Miler, 2010;Timulak & Elliott, 2003;Timulak & Lietaer, 2001) had a broader focus than insight events, such as empowerment events, and their description of the processes in insight events offered only very abstract and very general perspectives. Although the initial analysis was conducted on all ten studies, we observed that while these three studies did not contradict findings from other studies, they were not sufficiently detailed to contribute beyond the remaining seven studies.…”

Intensifying attachment-related sadness and decreasing anger intensity among individuals suffering from unresolved anger: The role of relational reframe followed by empty-chair interventions

“…The IPR has been used in a number of studies on psychotherapy process examining a range of questions (Frankel & Levitt, 2009;Levitt & Piazza-Bonin, 2011;Rice & Greenberg, 1984;Timulák & Lietaer, 2001). In its more structured form, participants are asked to respond to rating scales measuring the constructs of interest (Wiseman & Rice, 1989).…”