OS EFEITOS DE EPISÓDIOS AVERSIVOS SOBRE A PESSOA DO TERAPEUTA: UMA EXPLORAÇÃO DA RELAÇÃO TERAPÊUTICA

Abstract

The therapist client relationship has been a focus of attention in psychotherapy research. The present study explores an aspect of the therapist s experience of this relationship. It focuses the effect of aversive interpersonal occurrences on the person of the therapist: how these occurrences influence the therapist s interventions, how he or she copes with them, and what are his or her perceptions of the effects of coping. Another aim of the study was to increase the therapist s awareness of the impact the therapeutic encounter has on him or her as a person and of how he or she deals with it. Four female psychotherapists participated in this study. Each granted four individual interviews concerning sessions in which they felt punished by clients. The interviews were taped and transcribed, before being submitted to a qualitative, inductive analysis, based on the principles of Grounded Theory, within a contextualistic view. The results suggests that aversive interpersonal episodes in the therapeutic relationship have an important impact on the feelings of the therapist, and on her interventions following the aversive experience. Aversive events facilitate the identification of clinically relevant problem behavior. Elements that would turnout to be important for the therapy process came to the foreground as a result of these events. However, the events negatively influenced the behavior of some of the therapists, promoting, for instance, passive attitudes and escape/avoidance patterns in the therapist and the client. The aversive experiences generally led the therapists to greater awareness of their in-session behavior. Speaking about these moments (during the interviews) changed the therapist s perception of them.