Date of Award

1-1-2017

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology

Program

Educational Psychology and Methodology

Content Description

1 online resource (ii, xi, 109 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Myrna L Friedlander

Committee Members

Michael V Ellis, Alex L Pieterse, Mariola Moeyaert

Keywords

empathy, hindering self awareness, real relationship, therapist mindfulness practice, way of being, Mindfulness (Psychology), Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, Therapist and patient, Empathy, Self-consciousness (Awareness)

Subject Categories

Counseling Psychology

Abstract

The present study was designed to extend the psychotherapy literature on the benefits of therapist mindfulness practice. Three factors related to the therapist’s way of being (Fife, Whiting, Bradford, & Davis, 2014) were reasoned to be influenced by a mindfulness exercise practiced by the therapist immediately before beginning a therapy session. It was hypothesized that mindfulness practice, compared to no mindfulness, would result in (a) the client rating the therapist as more empathic on the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory Form OS-Emp+ (Barrett-Lennard, 2015); (b) the therapist experiencing less hindering self-awareness during the session, as indicated by scores on the Hindering Self-Awareness subscale within the Self Awareness and Management Strategies Scale (Williams, Hurley, O'Brien, & DeGregorio, 2003); and (c) the therapeutic relationship being perceived as more genuine and realistic based on clients’ and therapists’ scores on the Real Relationship Inventory (Gelso et al., 2005; Kelley, Gelso, Fuertes, Marmarosh, & Lanier, 2010).

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