Movement Synchrony in the Psychotherapy of Adolescents With Borderline Personality Pathology – A Dyadic Trait Marker for Resilience?

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Ronan Zimmermann¹  Lukas Fürer¹  Johann R. Kleinbub³  Fabian T. Ramseyer⁴  Rahel Hütten¹  Martin Steppan¹  Klaus Schmeck¹ 

[1] Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research Department, Psychiatric University Hospitals, University of Basel;Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel;Department of Philosophy, University of Padova;Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern;Division of Personality and Developmental Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Basel

关键词: resilience;    synchrony;    movement;    borderline personality disorder;    adolescence;    psychotherapy;    movement synchrony;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.660516

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Movement synchrony describes the coordination of body movements. In psychotherapy, higher movement synchrony between therapist and patient has been associated with higher levels of empathy, therapeutic alliance, better therapy outcome, and fewer drop-outs. The current study investigated movement synchrony during the psychotherapeutic treatment of female adolescents with borderline personality disorder. It was hypothesized that there are higher levels of movement synchrony in the analyzed therapy sessions compared to pseudo-interactions. Further, we tested whether higher levels of movement synchrony correlate with stronger patients’ symptom reduction and whether higher movement synchrony predicts higher post-session ratings. A total of 356 sessions from 16 completed psychotherapies of adolescent patients with BPD were analyzed. Movement synchrony was assessed with motion energy analysis and an index of synchrony was calculated by lagged cross-correlation analysis. As hypothesized, the findings support higher levels of movement synchrony in therapy sessions compared to pseudo-interactions (Cohen’s d = 0.85). Additionally, a correlation of movement synchrony with better therapy outcome was found (standardized beta = −0.43 indicating stronger personality functioning impairment reduction). The post-session ratings were negatively associated with higher levels of movement synchrony (standardized beta = −0.1). The relevance of movement synchrony and potential implications for clinical practice are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY