How do clients and therapists utilize positive emotion in psychotherapy sessions?
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Westwood, Dianne Kathleen
issued: 2016-08-16T02:02:26
issued: 2016
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: There are few studies in the literature that examine in-session emotional processes from the perspective of both client and therapist in psychotherapy. The aim of this project was to provide a rich and empathic understanding of the processes clients and therapists engaged in while working with clients’ positive emotional experience. The research question that guided the study was, “How do clients and therapists utilize positive emotion when they perceive it has arisen for the client in psychotherapy sessions.” A multiple case study approach (Stake, 2006) with a philosophical hermeneutic theoretical framework (Gadamer, 1975/2004) was used to examine the therapeutic conversations of three psychotherapy dyads. Interpersonal process recall interviewing (IPR, Bloom, 1954; Kagan, 1984) was conducted with individual therapy partners while they watched a video recording of their therapy session. The therapy sessions and interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed by adapting Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method of thematic analysis within a hermeneutic interpretivist lens. The analysis found that the therapeutic relationship and conversations formed the container within which therapy work, and its co-created meaning occurred. Considerable value and care was afforded to this connection by dyad partners. The therapeutic conversations revealed that therapy dyad partners had a significant impact on one another, across emotional, aesthetic, cultural, and moral domains. It also revealed that the privileging of positive emotional processes steered the direction of both the therapy sessions and research interviews. In addition, six common themes emerged across the three cases as follows: a) paying attention to safety; b) fueling the tank of togetherness; c) trusting the process and seeing where it leads; d) making implicit experience explicit and experiential to expand awareness and increase understanding; e) undoing aloneness; and f) affirming, anchoring, and appreciating the wor…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/58786
note: HOW DO CLIENTS AND THERAPISTS UTILIZE POSITIVE EMOTION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY SESSIONS by Dianne Kathleen Westwood B.N., McGill University, 1974 M.Ed., McGill University, 1979 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2008 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Counselling Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2016 © Dianne Kathleen Westwood, 2016 ii Abstract There are few studies in the literature that examine in-session emotional processes from the perspective of both client and therapist in psychotherapy. The aim of this project was to provide a rich and empathic understanding of the processes clients and therapists engaged in while working with clients’ positive emotional experience. The research question that guided the study was, “How do clients and therapists utilize positive emotion when they perceive it has arisen for the client in psychotherapy sessions.” A multiple case study approach (Stake, 2006) with a philosophical hermeneutic theoretical framework (Gadamer, 1975/2004) was used to examine the therapeutic conversations of three psychotherapy dyads. Interpersonal process recall interviewing (IPR, Bloom, 1954; Kagan, 1984) was conducted with individual therapy partners while they watched a video recording of their therapy session. The therapy sessions and interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed by adapting Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method of thematic analysis within a hermeneutic interpretivist lens. The analysis found that the therapeutic relationship and conversations formed the container within which therapy work, and its co-created meaning occurred. Considerable value and care was afforded to this connection by dyad partners. The therapeutic conversations revealed that therapy dyad partners had a significant impact on one another, across emotional, aesthetic, cultural, and moral domains. It also revealed th…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2016-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0308077
language: eng
degree discipline: Counselling Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/58786