Rupture repair as change process and therapist challenge (Reparación de rupturas como proceso de cambio y desafío para el terapeuta)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Our practice-based research programme has devoted itself to the study of how psychotherapy works for over 30 years. It has focused on how to negotiate the therapeutic alliance: more specifically, on rupture resolution as a critical change process in psychotherapy. Rupture refers to moments in which the patient and therapist experience a disagreement in the tasks and goals of treatment, a deterioration in their emotional bond or a breakdown in the intersubjective negotiation of their needs. Resolution (or repair) refers to the dyadic process that patient and therapist engage in to restore the alliance and to effect a new or corrective emotional experience. Our research has not only sought to provide further definition to this process but has striven to define and evaluate training for psychotherapists to be better able to identify ruptures and resolve them. We will provide some review of the evidence-based change process literature and the cognitive, emotion and social sciences that have informed our programme, concluding with a brief introduction to our research on clinical practice.