Nicolle Alamo

Through the perspectives of children, parents and therapists, this study explored the therapeutic relationship as a change facilitator in different moments of psychotherapy. The children, parents, and therapists (N=15) who formed part of five therapeutic treatments were studied using a qualitative, longitudinal design. Thirty semi-structured interviews were done; half at the beginning and half after four months of psychotherapy. Children’s drawings were incorporated, and data were analysed through grounded theory methods and qualitative analysis guidelines for drawings. Participants identified several aspects of the therapeutic relationship as change facilitators. From the first encounters, the therapists’ close and adaptable attitude promoted an improved motivation for psychotherapy and enhanced engagement among children and parents. Later in the process, a positive, child-centred and affective therapeutic relationship fostered the child’s trust with the therapist as well as a posi...

The depression is associated with typical ways of relating to and handling conflict with others. This study empirically examined the most frequent relational demands of female depressive patients, depending on their personality configuration and the characteristics of relevant segments within the session: change and stuck episodes. Ten psychotherapies (n = 230 sessions) were observed in order to identify, delimit and code relevant episodes within session (24 change episodes and 26 stuck episodes) using the CCRT-LU-S Category System (Albani et al., 2002), to determine patients’ relational demands. The results showed that introjective patients verbalized more relational demands on themselves as a relational object, and therefore more demands with a subject-subject direction. These patients expressed their needs and wishes centered on questioning themselves, to the detriment of generating significant interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, it was possible to predict a greater presenc...