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A qualitative study of psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapists’ conceptualisations of medically unexplained symptoms in their clients
Author(s) -
Luca Maria
Publication year - 2011
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 - 10.1080/14733145.2010.528007
Subject(s) - experiential learning , psychodynamics , psychology , grounded theory , psychotherapist , modalities , qualitative research , experiential knowledge , cognition , psychiatry , pedagogy , epistemology , sociology , social science , philosophy
Aim: This study explored therapists’ conceptualisations of their psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapies with clients with medically unexplained symptoms. Method: 12 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with experienced psychotherapists, recruited from two National Health Service departments. Interview transcripts were analysed using grounded theory. Findings: Conceptualisations fell into two categories: (1) informal, bottom‐up practice driven; (2) formal, top‐down theory driven. In the former, therapists from both modalities shared experiential conceptualisations. In the latter, they shared some conceptualisations while retaining others from their theoretical training. Discussion: Therapists conceptualise using inherited theoretical concepts from their respective professional trainings, by developing experiential concepts of their own, and by borrowing and integrating theoretical concepts from other theoretical orientations.