Effects of written emotional disclosure on psychotherapy mediation: Therapeutic alliance, experiencing, mood, and attendance
Abstract
Written emotional disclosure when used across several days has been found to lead to better health and functioning. This is the first controlled study to test its effects on the process of individual therapy, specifically whether including three sessions of at-home written emotional disclosure after the intake session of individual therapy would improve the therapeutic alliance, deepen the experiencing, increase positive affect, decrease negative affect, and lengthen overall attendance in therapy. Exploratory questions investigated included what role, it any, adherence to the writing exercise had on the outcome measures, what role therapist effects had on the outcome measures, as well as the possible moderating role of gender on the effects of the writing task. This was tested by comparing clients randomized to conduct written emotional disclosure after the intake session (Session 1) or to receive either the usual course of intake and therapy or to. Seventy-nine clients were randomized, and 71 provided outcome data. The results of this study indicate written emotional disclosure did not influence the process of therapy. It did not add or detract from alliance as rated by the therapists or clients, experiencing of clients as rated by therapists, positive or negative affect of clients following sessions, or number of total sessions clients attended, when compared to those clients who received standard individual therapy. However, across sessions, regardless of experimental group, there was an increase in alliance, experiencing, positive affect, and a decrease in negative affect. Secondary analyses suggested that those who revealed more in their writing than in their therapy session attended more sessions of therapy. Gender of client was not a moderating variable, and there were no clear differences in effect among the fix therapists. It is concluded that written emotional disclosure at the start of therapy does not have a meaningful effect on the process of therapy, perhaps because all clients are already engaged in the larger and more powerful disclosure process of therapy. However, substantial variability in the writings and among the clients suggests that there may be subsets of clients who do benefit from this technique.
Recommended Citation
Christina Ann Kraft,
"Effects of written emotional disclosure on psychotherapy mediation: Therapeutic alliance, experiencing, mood, and attendance"
(January 1, 2006).
ETD Collection for Wayne State University.
Paper AAI3210998.
http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/dissertations/AAI3210998
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