Relations among psychotherapists' epistemic orientation, personal style and emotion regulation

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the relations among psychotherapists' epistemic orientation (i.e., intuitive, empiricist, and rationalist), personal style and emotion regulation strategies. Participants in the study were 674 psychotherapists of different theoretical approaches, who completed an online questionnaire containing measures of epistemic orientation, personal style, and emotion regulation strategies. Psychotherapists profiled as predominantly intuitive tended towards broader attention and greater emotional closeness as compared to those profiled as predominantly rationalist or empiricist. Furthermore, they also reported using more strategies for increasing the effects of positive emotions than rationalists. Implications for training, practice and therapist well-being are discussed.