Browsing by Author "Stiles, William B."
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- Ambivalence in emotion-focused therapy for depression: The maintenance of problematically dominant self-narrativesPublication . Ribeiro, António P.; Mendes, Inês; Stiles, William B.; Angus, Lynne; Sousa, Inês; Gonçalves, Miguel M.Ambivalence can be understood as a cyclical movement between an emerging narrative novelty-an Innovative Moment (IM)-and a return to a problematically dominant self-narrative. The return implies that the IM, with its potential for change is devalued right after its emergence. Our goal is to test the hypothesis that the probability of the client expressing such form of ambivalence decreases across treatment in good-outcome cases but not in poor-outcome cases.
- A dynamic look at narrative change in psychotherapy: A case study tracking innovative moments and protonarratives using state space gridsPublication . Ribeiro, António P.; Bento, Tiago; Salgado, João; Stiles, William B.; Gonçalves, Miguel M.This study aims to further the understanding of how innovative moments (IMs), which are exceptions to a client's problematic self-narrative in the therapy dialogue, progress to the construction of a new self-narrative, leading to successful psychotherapy. The authors' research strategy involved tracking IMs, and the themes expressed therein (or protonarratives), and analysing the dynamic relation between IMs and protonarratives within and across sessions using state space grids in a good-outcome case of constructivist psychotherapy. The concept of protonarrative helped explain how IMs transform a problematic self-narrative into a new, more flexible, self-narrative. The increased flexibility of the new self-narrative was manifested as an increase in the diversity of IM types and of protonarratives. Results suggest that new self-narratives may develop through the elaboration of protonarratives present in IMs, yielding an organizing framework that is more flexible than the problematic self-narrative.
- Fluctuation in the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences: A Case Study of Dynamic Systems AnalysisPublication . Basto, Isabel; Stiles, William B.; Bento, Tiago; Pinheiro, Patrícia; Mendes, Inês; Rijo, Daniel; Salgado, JoãoDynamic systems theory suggests that instability can be a key element in the promotion of human change processes. Several studies have confirmed an association between unstable patterns and successful psychotherapeutic outcome. Somewhat similarly, the assimilation model of psychotherapeutic change argues that clinical change occurs through the integration of problematic experiences that initially threaten the stability of the self. This study examined how instability in assimilation levels was related to assimilation progress and change in symptom intensity, within and across sessions, in a good-outcome case of Emotion Focused Therapy. We used the assimilation of problematic experiences scales (APES) to measure assimilation and the outcome-questionnaire (OQ-10) to measure clinical symptom intensity. To assess assimilation instability, we used a fluctuation measure that calculated the amplitude and the frequency of changes in assimilation levels. To analyze the structural relationships between variables we used a dynamic factor model. The results showed that APES level and APES fluctuation tended to increase across treatment, while OQ-10 scores tended to decrease. However, contrary to expectations, the dynamic factor model showed no significant associations between APES fluctuation and OQ-10 scores either within sessions or between adjacent sessions.
- Immersion and distancing during assimilation of problematic experiences in a good-outcome case of emotion-focused therapyPublication . Barbosa, Eunice; Couto, Ana Bela; Basto, Isabel; Stiles, William B.; Pinto-Gouveia, José; Salgado, JoãoSome studies have suggested that a decrease in immersion (egocentric perspective on personal experiences) and an increase in distancing (observer perspective on personal experiences) are associated with the resolution of clinical problems and positive outcome in psychotherapy for depression. To help clarify how this change in perspectives relates to clinical change, the present study compared changes in immersion and distancing across therapy with progress in one client's assimilation of her problematic experiences.
- The role of mutual in-feeding in maintaining problematic self-narratives: Exploring one path to therapeutic failurePublication . Gonçalves, Miguel M.; Ribeiro, António P.; Stiles, William B.; Conde, Tatiana; Matos, Marlene; Martins, Carla; Santos, AnitaAccording to the author's narrative model of change, clients may maintain a problematic self-stability across therapy, leading to therapeutic failure, by a mutual in-feeding process, which involves a cyclical movement between two opposing parts of the self. During innovative moments (IMs) in the therapy dialogue, clients' dominant self-narrative is interrupted by exceptions to that self-narrative, but subsequently the dominant self-narrative returns. The authors identified return-to-the-problem markers (RPMs), which are empirical indicators of the mutual in-feeding process, in passages containing IMs in 10 cases of narrative therapy (five good-outcome cases and five poor-outcome cases) with females who were victims of intimate violence. The poor-outcome group had a significantly higher percentage of IMs with RPMs than the good-outcome group. The results suggest that therapeutic failures may reflect a systematic return to a dominant self-narrative after the emergence of novelties (IMs).