Pilot process research of reflecting conversations

Abstract

A psychotherapy process methodology, Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR), was used on a pilot sample of couples to better understand what transpires during Reflecting Team dialogues. Using data collected in an earlier ethnography, a team of researchers performed a constant comparative analysis of transcripts of the dialogues immediately before, during and after Reflecting Team clinical markers (Rice & Greenberg, 1984, 1992). Not surprisingly, the couples' experiences of Reflecting Team differed from therapists' in all three phases of the dialogues. For the period immediately preceding the Reflecting Team dialogues, couples focused on process while therapists focused on expectations. During the dialogues, couples focused on the impact while therapists focused on its purpose. Finally, immediately after the dialogues, couples focused on the value of Reflecting Teams while therapists focused on its impact. Recommendations for future studies are given.