Group Leader and Member Here-and-now Focus and Therapeutic Factors: A Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Analysis

Yalom (1985) believed that working in the here-and-now of the group is essential to facilitating the "therapeutic factors" necessary for a successful outcome. Yet, we currently lack research examining whether a here-and-now in-session focus predicts the therapeutic factors, as theorized.

This study used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis to assess group member and leader in-session here-and-now focus by analyzing words spoken in a session.

The results suggest that when group leaders use more here-and-now words in a speaking turn, group members use more here-and-now words in the subsequent speaking turn. However, contrary to expectation, group leaders and group members "matching" on here-and-now language in a session did not predict more therapeutic factors in between sessions, but rather less social learning. Instead, how consistent or variable group members or leaders were in their here-and-now focus generally predicted more therapeutic factors.

These results suggest that LIWC may be a promising vehicle to assess here-and-now language in group therapy sessions and that a here-and-now in-session focus has a complex relationship with the therapeutic factors.