Getting Worse Before Getting Better: Using Content Analysis to Examine the Change Process in a Time-Limited Psychodynamic Group Therapy for Social Phobia
Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: Research involving the assimilation model of psychotherapeutic change has suggested that psychodynamic therapies, when successful, often involve a degree of "getting worse before getting better."That is, there is an increase in client distress across early sessions of therapy followed by improvement as treatment progresses.This study examined this pattern in the context of a content analysis of a group therapy for social phobia.4-Four clients participated in up to 10 sessions of group therapy.Through intensive contact with transcripts of the sessions, investigators constructed a system of content categories for coding client dialogue and its associated emotional valence, which was then applied by independent raters to the transcripts.The results of this procedure suggested that although the reliability of the coding system was not high, there was some support for the "getting worse before getting better" phenomenon as a component of the therapeutic change process.
Author: Michael Gray
Institution: Miami University
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2598993152