Identifying and developing therapeutic principles for trauma‐focused work in person‐centred and emotion‐focused therapies

Murphy, David; Elliott, Robert; Carrick, Lorna

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify facilitative therapeutic principles in person-centred and emotion-focused therapy for working with traumatised clients in the early stages of therapy. Four cases were selected from the Strathclyde Experiential Therapy for Social Anxiety archive: one good and one poor outcome case from each therapeutic approach. Outcomes were considered good and poor based on quantitative outcome measures. Each case met DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for both PTSD and social anxiety. We developed a new method for the identification of therapeutic principles that offers an alternative to current approaches to competency identification. Our method uses a qualitative, bottom-up inductive process analysis. The first three sessions from each case were transcribed and independently analysed by two researchers (one blinded to the outcomes); the third researcher acted as consultant. The transcripts were analysed by focusing on session episode structure and treatment principles. Four trauma-focused therapist principles were identified: 1) Support early relationship building/alliance formation; 2) Facilitate client identification and recognition of past events as trauma experiences; 3) Facilitate work on traumatic sources of current experiential and interpersonal difficulties; 4) Offer self-agency focused empathy. We conclude that our approach identifies and provides a new method for establishing person-centred-experiential therapy principles for early trauma-focused work. Further research is recommended, and limitations are discussed.

Citation

Murphy, D., Elliott, R., & Carrick, L. (2019). Identifying and developing therapeutic principles for trauma‐focused work in person‐centred and emotion‐focused therapies. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 19(4), 497-507. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12235

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 11, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Apr 5, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2019
• Journal: Counselling and Psychotherapy Research
• Print ISSN: 1473-3145
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-1405
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 497-507
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12235
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1753200
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/capr.12235
• Contract Date: Apr 5, 2019