The use of orientation in clinical interventions by experienced and inexperienced behavior therapists. / O uso da orientação em intervenções clínicas por terapeutas comportamentais experientes e pouco experientes

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2004

RESUMO

Increasing interest is being evinced not only in the study of psychotherapeutic results but also in the processes responsible for those outcomes. From a behavior analytical standpoint, discussions are focusing on whether the process of psychotherapeutic change takes place through the formulation (and following) of new rules or through the consequences for behaviors occurring in therapeutic interaction. Changes that take place just the therapist´s orientation are assumed to be governed by rules. Orientation refers to a description of the behavior made by the speaker to be executed by the listener, with an explicit or implicit description of the consequences of the action. Self-orientation is a description made by the client to be executed by himself. The purpose of the research was to analyze the effect of four variables on the behavior of giving orientation: a) a behavioral theoretical education; b) experience; c) clients; and d) fluctuations between sessions. Six inexperienced and three experienced behavior therapists participated in this research. Each of these therapists recorded three sessions with three adult clients with varied diagnosis. The sessions were transcribed and categorized, counting the number of words and of dialogues containing orientation and self-orientation and their subtypes. The experienced behavior therapists oriented their clients significantly more than the inexperienced ones did, although the former displayed a greater variability in relation to the use of this strategy. Only one of the experienced therapists gave substantial orientation to all his clients in every session. The clients of another experienced therapist self-oriented themselves significantly more than the clients of the other two experienced and the inexperienced therapists. As for the subtypes of orientation, both experienced and inexperienced therapists gave more orientation for specific action than for generic action, covert behavior or tasks. The experienced and inexperienced therapists displayed significant differences regarding the subtypes of orientation for specific action and for tasks, but no significant differences in the subtypes of orientation for generic action and covert behavior. The experienced therapists gave more orientation for specific action while the inexperienced ones gave more task-related orientation than the experienced. The findings suggest that behavior therapists tend to be directive, i.e., they use strategies to orient their clients, but that, on average, less than 20% of the experienced therapists´ sessions and less than 10% of the inexperienced therapists´ sessions make use of orientation strategy.

ASSUNTO(S)

behavior therapists terapia comportamental terapeutas comportamentais behavior therapy

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