The current study is based on the notion of an empathic dialectic, marked by states of emotional resonance and regulation, which has been described by contemporary theories of therapeutic empathy and empirically supported by research on non-therapists. We operationalized emotional resonance as personal distress empathy, and we sought to examine how activities promoting self-regulation impact the association between personal distress empathy, and other facets of poor self-regulation. This was accomplished through an online study, which administered several self-report instruments to a sample of 158 non-therapists and 139 therapists of various levels of experience, collecting participants’ demographic information, attachment status, level of shame-proneness, the fear of invalidity, and personal distress empathy. We examined the impact of several moderators on the paths from attachment anxiety, shame-proneness, and the fear of invalidity to personal distress empathy; and, thus, on the indirect effect between attachment anxiety and personal distress empathy. For our first hypothesis, we expected therapist status to significantly moderate the paths in this proposed meditation. For our second hypothesis, we anticipated personal therapy sessions would significantly moderate this meditation. For our third hypothesis, we expected that both personal therapy and therapist experience level would moderate this mediation. Most notably, our results indicated that the fear of invalidity explained the association between attachment anxiety and personal distress empathy, and this mediation was stronger among non-therapists when compared to therapists. Yet, personal therapy did not similarly impact the relationships among these variables. Implications for future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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治疗师经验、个人治疗和令人痛苦的心理状态：作为治疗移情辩证法的调节和共鸣

当前的研究基于共情辩证法的概念，以情绪共鸣和调节状态为标志，当代治疗同理心理论对此进行了描述，并得到了非治疗师研究的实证支持。我们将情绪共鸣作为个人痛苦同理心进行操作，我们试图研究促进自我调节的活动如何影响个人痛苦同理心与自我调节不良的其他方面之间的关联。这是通过一项在线研究完成的，该研究对 158 名非治疗师和 139 名不同经验水平的治疗师样本进行了几种自我报告工具，收集了参与者的人口统计信息、依恋状态、羞耻倾向程度、恐惧无效，和个人痛苦的同理心。我们研究了几个调节器对从依恋焦虑、羞耻倾向和对无效的恐惧到个人痛苦同理心的路径的影响；因此，对依恋焦虑和个人痛苦同理心之间的间接影响。对于我们的第一个假设，我们预计治疗师的地位会显着调节这个提议的冥想路径。对于我们的第二个假设，我们预计个人治疗会显着缓和这种冥想。对于我们的第三个假设，我们预计个人治疗和治疗师的经验水平都会缓和这种中介。最值得注意的是，我们的结果表明，对无效的恐惧解释了依恋焦虑和个人痛苦同理心之间的关联，与治疗师相比，非治疗师的这种中介作用更强。然而，个人治疗并没有类似地影响这些变量之间的关系。讨论了对未来研究的影响。