Empowerment events in process-experiential psychotherapy of depression: an exploratory qualitative analysis

The goal of this study was to analyze different types of empowering therapy events. Twelve significantly empowering therapy events, involving 9 depressed clients undergoing individual process-experiential psychotherapy, were selected from a larger collection of significant events (Elliott et al., 1990) using client ratings of feeling powerful/hopeful/active. The data consisted of transcripts of client-identified significant events along with parts of client and therapist Brief Structured Recall interviews. The events were first sorted into broad domains and then into types. Finally, general and variant themes across domains were tracked. We found 5 types of empowerment events: poignant, emergent, decisional, empowerment, and accomplishment. A description is provided for each event type across domains: client processes, therapist processes and interaction, and therapeutic impact. Different therapeutic processes were present in a variety of empowerment types. However, some therapist interventions contributed to several types of empowerment, among them communication of empathic understanding, empathic affirmation of client growth-promoting aspects, and 2-chair work.