Affect-Focused Short-Term Dynamic Therapy

Abstract

(from the chapter) The field of psychotherapy research is in the process of solving a great puzzle. To date, differing therapies have often demonstrated similar effectiveness, and no factors have been identified that consistently capture a large portion of the variance in improvement [1, 2]. Therapeutic alliance accounts for about 22% of the variance in outcomes [2] and patient characteristics at admission an additional 20-25%> [1], leaving more than half of the variance somewhat of a mystery. What factors remain obscured in the complex and mysterious other half of the psychotherapy process? Are there powerful curative factors that have not yet been identified or are some interventions not yet powerful enough? Do we lack the proper methods to accurately capture the mechanisms that promote change or do change mechanisms need to be more context-specific and better tailored to the patient? Finally, are there mysterious, treatment-specific mechanisms that remain to be discovered? Affect may be one of these mysterious variables. Although considered a contributor to change in many theoretical orientations and a common factor in some research studies, research on affect in psychotherapy has been equivocal. This chapter will describe a quest to explore the power of affect in psychotherapy, to better operationalize this complex and confusing construct, and to report on relevant research that might shed some light on aspects of affect that have not been previously examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)