NCJ Number
210100
Journal
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2005 Pages: 141-151
Date Published
April 2005
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article reports on two studies (one single case and one comparative study) that examined change processes within individual therapy sessions for sexual offenders as well as over the course of treatment.
Abstract
The analysis focused on the application of the Therapeutic Cycle Model (TCM), developed by Mergenthaler (1996, 1997), to a single case (Study 1, Bohmer, 2000) and to a comparison of transcripts from psychotherapies of eight sexual offenders with those of eight neurotic patients (Study 2, Cornehl, 2000). Developed for verbal psychotherapies, the TCM measures two change agents that are related to emotional and cognitive regulation and are operationalized as the amount of emotion and abstraction in psychotherapy transcripts. Depending on the amount of expression of these two factors, four different emotion/abstraction patterns can be identified: "Relaxing" (low emotion and low abstraction); "Reflecting" (high abstraction without emotional involvement); "Experiencing" (high emotional involvement with little reflection); and "Connecting" (high emotional involvement and abstraction). The objectives of the current analysis are to demonstrate the sensitivity of the TCM for sexual offender patients and to identify specific emotional and cognitive properties for this group compared to neurotic patients. In Study 1, 62 consecutive psychotherapy sessions with a single client were audio-taped and transcribed, covering a treatment period of approximately 1.5 years, with a frequency of 1 session per week. The database for Study 2 consisted of transcripts of three consecutive cognitive-behavior psychotherapy sessions with eight male sexual offenders (child abusers) detained under court order in a high security forensic psychiatric clinic. Similarly, transcripts from three consecutive psychodynamic therapy sessions with eight male neurotic outpatients were used for comparative purposes. The findings show the sensitivity of the TCM for sexual offender patients and its ability to distinguish between emotion/abstraction patterns of sexual offenders and neurotic patients under similar treatment therapies. 4 figures and 19 references