Therapists’ Experiences with Depressive Clients

Journal title QUADERNI DI GESTALT
Author/s Jan Roubal, Tomas Rihacek
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2015/1 Language Italian
Pages 12 P. 99-110 File size 116 KB
DOI 10.3280/GEST2015-001008
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This study explores the experiential process of psychotherapists during a session with a currently depressive client. Method: Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with 30 therapists and the grounded theory method was used as a methodological framework. Results: The therapists’ experience was conceptualized as experiential oscillation between getting closer to a client’s depressive experience and moving away from it. Its development over the course of a session is depicted by a six-phase Depression Co-experiencing Trejectory model. Conclusions: The resultant theory interconnects different therapists’ emotional responses to a depressive client within a coherent process model, which allows us to track the changes in therapists’ experiences, to name the relations between them, and to connect them with the therapy’s in-session microprocesses.

Keywords: Depression; therapists’ experience; therapeutic relationship; countertransference; grounded theory method.

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Jan Roubal, Tomas Rihacek, I vissuti del terapeuta con i pazienti depressi in "QUADERNI DI GESTALT" 1/2015, pp 99-110, DOI: 10.3280/GEST2015-001008