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Focusing the therapist's attention on the patient's strengths: a preliminary study to foster a mechanism of change in outpatient psychotherapy.
Journal article

Focusing the therapist's attention on the patient's strengths: a preliminary study to foster a mechanism of change in outpatient psychotherapy.

  • 2008-05-20
Published in:
  • Journal of clinical psychology. - 2008
Adult
Ambulatory Care
Anxiety Disorders
Attention
Control Groups
Depressive Disorder
Female
Humans
Male
Object Attachment
Personality Inventory
Professional-Patient Relations
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychotherapeutic Processes
Psychotherapy
Retrospective Studies
Severity of Illness Index
Treatment Outcome
English Previous research has supported the immediate activation of patient's strengths (resource activation) as an important mechanism of change in psychotherapy. We designed a brief (10 min) priming procedure in which therapists' attention was focused on the patients' individual strengths before each therapy session (resource priming). In a preliminary study, the priming procedure was carried out before each of the first five sessions (N=20). Preliminary results indicated that this brief preparatory intervention boosted resource activation as perceived by independent observers, fostered attachment and mastery experiences by the patient, and improved therapy outcome at Session 20. Improvement was assessed in comparison to a pairwise matched, nonrandomized control group of patients treated previously with the same treatment protocol at the same clinic.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/6582
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