Client-Reported Factors of Corrective Experiences in Individual Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Abstract

The article presents the international project on corrective emotional experiences in psychotherapy and the results of the research conducted on the Slovenian sample of clients. The research is based on the principles of qualitative research, specifically the principles of grounded theory. An analysis was done on ten in-depth interviews with clients who experienced psychoanalytical psychotherapy. The main purpose of the research was to answer the research question: how do clients estimate what has changed in them in the process of therapy and what led up to the change. The detailed corrective emotional experiences of clients in the process of psychoanalytical psychotherapy are described, based on semi-structured interviews that were developed within the international project. The interviews were conducted with clients who have already concluded their psychoanalytical psychotherapy or are still in the process. The research plan and research process were conducted in four phases. They were supervised by a research group in order to fulfil the criteria for achieving reliability and validity. The most noticeable corrective changes reported by clients were: emotional change (n = 191), expressing emotion (n = 56), awareness of self (n = 88) and setting limits in relationship with other people (n = 123). According to their estimation the following factors contributed most to the corrective experiences: direct intervention of the therapist (n = 121), interventions that could not be placed into a specific modality (n = 153) and closeness between the therapist and client (n = 59), where the numerus presents the joint number of codes of the 2nd phase. Suggestions for the effective practice of psychotherapists are presented in the Discussion.