Comparative study of emotional experiencing in psychodynamic-interpersonal and cognitive-behavioral therapies

Despite increased interest in the role of emotion in the process of psychotherapy, we currently lack a valid gauge of its importance in the change process. Significant sessions obtained from 13 experienced psychodynamic-interpersonal and 17 experienced cognitive-behavior therapists were examined to determine the extent of affective exploration and therapists' views of these client states. Results indicate that affective experiencing is present in equivalent amounts in the change sessions of these two orientations. However, therapists' clinical views were dissimilar. Psychodynamic-interpersonal therapists viewed portions containing higher affective experiencing as more critical to the change process, whereas cognitive-behavior therapists viewed lower levels of experiencing as being therapeutically more significant. These findings suggest that, with regard to emotional experiencing, psychodynamic-interpersonal therapists may share common ground with experiential therapists, whereas cognitive-behavior therapists appear to have a unique perspective.