Premium
The treatment of depression: A case study using theme‐analysis
Author(s) -
Meier Augustine,
Boivin Micheline,
Meier Molisa
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
counselling and psychotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.38
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1746-1405
pISSN - 1473-3145
DOI - 10.1080/14733140600718877
Subject(s) - minnesota multiphasic personality inventory , psychology , theme (computing) , psychotherapist , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , relevance (law) , personality , social psychology , computer science , political science , law , economics , macroeconomics , operating system
Abstract Theme Analysis was applied to the transcripts of 18 counseling sessions of a middle‐age depressed male to identify the themes of depression, indicate how they are linked to each other, and to track changes on the themes across psychotherapy sessions as reflected by a change process measure. Psychotherapeutic themes were defined in terms of polarities with one pole representing the problem‐end on a continuum and the second pole representing the striving‐towards end on a continuum. The Seven‐Phase Model of the Change Process was used to assess change on the themes across the sessions. Depression was defined by DSM‐IV diagnostic criteria for a Major Depressive Episode and by the Depression Scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Three classes of themes were identified: descriptive, main and core. The research produced one core theme to which the other themes are linked. The results suggest that the themes change across therapy in a progressive forward manner. The theoretical implications and clinical relevance of the findings were discussed.