Relationship and technique in psychotherapy - a process-outcome study on working alliance, therapist interventions, and patient collaboration in psychotherapy for panic disorder

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ulrike Dinger-Ehrenthal
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 226708371

Aim of this project is the investigation of relationship and therapeutic technique in psychotherapy for panic disorder. Specifically, the influence of working alliance, therapist interventions, and patient collaborative work on therapeutic outcome will be examined. Special attention will be paid to the interdependence of relationship and technical aspects of therapeutic work. In addition, differential effects of treatment form and patient characteristics will be examined. The psychotherapies under investigation are Psychodynamic Panic Focused Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy. The project is a process outcome study and includes patients¿ and therapists¿ views as well as independent observer ratings of therapeutic process variables (alliance, interventions and patient collaboration). Therapy outcome is assessed via a standardized interview procedure. Database for the study will be a randomized clinical trial on dynamic versus cognitive behavioral psychotherapy for panic disorder. The tasks for the applicant include the development of a patient collaboration index, observer ratings of session tapes and statistical data analysis. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the knowledge of relationship and technical aspects of the psychotherapeutic process.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Jacques Barber, Ph.D.