Therapeutic Interaction Structures and Referential Process: A Single Case Study.

Aim: According to a constructionist approach for psychotherapy research, the complex phenomena of therapeutic relationship should be analyzed with a combination of process 147 research and micro level analysis of the sessions. The present single-case study was designed to show the usefulness of a process analysis with the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set (PQS; Jones 2000; Ablon et al. 2012) and the Italian Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (IWRAD; Bucci, Maskit & Mariani 2013). The aims were to assess the interaction structures of therapeutic dyads, as defined by Jones' theory of therapeutic action, and the three phases - Arousal, Symbolizing and Reorganizing -- of the referential process, described by Bucci. The main hypothesis is that each phases of the referential process is characterized by specific and typical interaction structures. Methods: The analysis focused on the transcripts of 8 sessions, two for each of the a four years of face-to-face psychodynamic-oriented psychotherapy. All transcripts were rated with PQS items and processed by the Italian Discourse Attributes Analysis Program, obtaining the following computerized linguistic measures of the referential process: Positive Affects, Negative Affects, Neutral Affects, Reflection, Disfluency, Referential Activity. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. Results: The data analysis is in process. Results will be presented. Discussion: The results will be discussed.