Recognizing oneself in the encounter with others: Meaningful moments in systemic therapy for social anxiety disorder in the eyes of patients and their therapists after the end of therapy.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to characterize and describe meaningful moments in the context of systemic psychotherapy, from the point of view of patients and their therapists, after the end of therapy. The therapy studied is a manualized, monitored systemic therapy for social anxiety disorder. METHOD: Semi-structured follow-up interviews were conducted separately with five patients and their therapists (N = 10). Methodological triangulation was used: Grounded theory was used to code the transcripts as described by Charmaz. Then the passages of the selected code "meaningful moment" were evaluated using thematic comparison, in line with Meuser & Nagel. FINDINGS: Three categories involving meaningful moments were identified: (1) meeting other patients in group therapy session, (2) therapeutic resource orientation and (3) recognizing oneself in a diagnosis or pattern of behaviour. These categories emerged as contexts related to the occurrence of meaningful moments from a subjective perspective. DISCUSSION: Meaningful moments seem to be consistently related to the therapist input and to specific interventions or settings, both from the perspective of the patients and the therapists. Two tandems each described a coincident moment. One central aspect of all 14 moments is that the patients and therapists described patients being able to acquire another outlook on themselves.

"I couldn't change the past; the answer wasn't there": A case study on the subjective construction of psychotherapeutic change of a patient with a Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis and her therapist.

BACKGROUND: Qualitative research has provided knowledge about the subjective experiences of therapists and patients regarding the psychotherapy process and its results. Only few studies have attempted to integrate both perspectives, considering the influence of a patient's characteristics and diagnosis in the construction of this experience. AIM: To identify aspects of psychotherapy that contribute to therapeutic change based on the experience of a patient and her therapist, and to construct an integrated comprehension of the change process of a patient with Borderline Personality Disorder. METHOD: A single case was used to carry out a qualitative analysis of follow-up interviews of the participants of a long-term psychotherapy. Two qualitative approaches were combined into a model entitled "Discovery-Oriented Biographical Analysis" to reconstruct an integrated narrative. RESULTS: This method yielded an integrated narrative organized into four "chapters" that reflect the subjective construction of both the patient's and the therapist's experience of psychotherapy in terms of meaning. DISCUSSION: The understanding of psychotherapy as a multilevel process, in which different themes occur and develop simultaneously, is discussed. From this perspective, psychotherapy can be characterized as a process that involves the recovery of trust in others through corrective emotional experiences and the construction of a shared implicit relational knowledge. Clinical or methodological significance of this article: Research on the subjective experiences of psychotherapy must consider both patient and therapist as privileged but always complementary witnesses of their interaction. In addition, it should be noted that the experience of studying this biographical reconstruction generates a space where research and practice converge. The analysis of participants' narratives provides fascinating windows into their perceptions of psychotherapy and the process of change (Safran, 2013); here, the researcher is not merely a advantaged observer or a good summarizer: He/she has the chance to imbue the psychotherapy with a new meaning by connecting it with a common set of knowledge and a body of socially shared experience.

Intervenciones basadas en la mentalización para padres y educadores: una revisión sistemática / Mentalization based interventions for parents and educators: a systematic review

Estudios recientes han mostrado la importancia de la mentalización y/o función reflexiva de los cuidadores como una de las variables que predice el desarrollo de esta habilidad y el apego seguro en el niño/a. A partir de estos antecedentes se revisa la literatura existente sobre intervenciones psicológicas focalizadas en promover la mentalización en padres y/o personal educativo de niños/as en etapa preescolar. Se consideran 17 estudios publicados entre los años 2000 y 2013. Los resultados muestran que gran parte de los estudios analizan y desarrollan modelos teóricos, siendo incipientes aquellos que consideran los estudios acerca de intervenciones basadas en la mentalización dirigidas a padres y/o agentes educativos. Dentro de estos últimos la mayoría están orientados a intervenciones tempranas en niños/as de 0 a 3 años, siendo escasos los estudios en preescolares (3 a 5 años de edad) dentro de un contexto educativo que reportan los efectos en los niños/as.

Recent studies have shown the importance of mentalizing or reflective function of caregivers as one of the variables that predict awareness and secure attachment in children. From this background there is a review of the literature on psychological interventions focused on promoting mentalizing or reflective function in parents and preschool educators. 17 studies published between 2000 and 2013 are considered. The results show that most of the studies analyzed and developed in theoretical models, with those who consider emerging studies based on mentalizing aimed at parents and educators interventions. Within the latter most are aimed at early intervention in children aged 0-3 years, with few studies in preschool children (3-5 years old) within an educational context that the effects reported in children.