Abstract

Objective: This study involves the first attempt to identify sudden gains in a sample of clients undergoing experiential therapy for depression while also investigating client and therapist change processes related to sudden gains.

Method: Pre- and post-session Beck Depression Inventory, short form (BDI-SF) questionnaires were used to identify sudden gains and differentiate between in-session and between-session symptom changes in thirty-six client-therapist dyads. Archival videotape data of a sub-sample were coded using the Experiencing Scale, Classification of Affective Meaning States, and the Coding System for Therapist Focus.

Results: The study revealed that 63.9% of clients experienced a sudden gain and the bulk of the total mean symptom decrease (74.9%) was found to occur within the session preceding the sudden gain. During this critical session, clients were more likely to display deepened experiencing (p < .01, η² = .34), clients were more likely to express “primary adaptive emotions” (p < .05, r = .38), and therapists were found to be more likely to focus on unmet client needs (p < .01, d = .75).

Conclusion: The majority of the sudden gain change occurs within session in experiential therapy, and primary adaptive emotions as well as addressing unmet needs are possible processes of sudden gains.

摘要

目标：本研究首次尝试确定接受抑郁症体验式治疗的客户样本中的突然收益，同时还调查与突然收益相关的客户和治疗师的变化过程。

方法：使用会前和会后贝克抑郁量表，简短形式 (BDI-SF) 问卷来识别突然增加并区分 36 位客户-治疗师二人组的会期和会期之间的症状变化。使用体验量表、情感意义状态分类和治疗师焦点编码系统对子样本的档案录像带数据进行编码。

结果：研究表明，63.9% 的客户经历了突然增加，并且发现总体平均症状减少的大部分 (74.9%) 发生在突然增加之前的会话中。在这个关键的会议期间，客户更有可能表现出更深入的体验（p  < .01，η ²  = .34），客户更有可能表达“主要适应性情绪”（p  < .05，r  = .38），并且发现治疗师更有可能关注未满足的客户需求（p  < .01，d  = .75）。

结论：大多数突然的增益变化发生在体验疗法的疗程中，主要的适应性情绪以及解决未满足的需求是突然增益的可能过程。