Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance

Nonverbal synchrony between individuals has a robust relation to the positive aspects of relationships. In psychotherapy, where talking is the cure, nonverbal synchrony has been related to a positive outcome of therapy and to a stronger therapeutic alliance between therapist and client in dyadic set...

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Autores principales:	Petra Nyman-Salonen, Virpi-Liisa Kykyri, Wolfgang Tschacher, Joona Muotka, Anu Tourunen, Markku Penttonen, Jaakko Seikkula
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	couple therapy nonverbal synchrony motion energy analysis surrogate synchrony therapeutic alliance client well-being Psychology BF1-990
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7fa155e6c3d9465989a2aad15c076ca7
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7fa155e6c3d9465989a2aad15c076ca72021-11-11T06:33:09ZNonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance1664-107810.3389/fpsyg.2021.718353https://doaj.org/article/7fa155e6c3d9465989a2aad15c076ca72021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718353/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/1664-1078Nonverbal synchrony between individuals has a robust relation to the positive aspects of relationships. In psychotherapy, where talking is the cure, nonverbal synchrony has been related to a positive outcome of therapy and to a stronger therapeutic alliance between therapist and client in dyadic settings. Only a few studies have focused on nonverbal synchrony in multi-actor therapy conversations. Here, we studied the synchrony of head and body movements in couple therapy, with four participants present (spouses and two therapists). We analyzed more than 2000min of couple therapy videos from 11 couple therapy cases using Motion Energy Analysis and a Surrogate Synchrony (SUSY), a procedure used earlier in dyadic psychotherapy settings. SUSY was calculated for all six dyads per session, leading to synchrony computations for 66 different dyads. Significant synchrony occurred in all 29 analyzed sessions and between the majority of dyads. Complex models were used to determine the relations between nonverbal synchrony and the clients’ well-being and all participants’ evaluations of the therapeutic alliance. The clients’ well-being was related to body synchronies in the sessions. Differences were found between the clients’ and therapists’ alliance evaluations: the clients’ alliance evaluations were related to synchrony between both dyads of opposite gender, whereas the therapists’ alliance evaluations were related to synchrony between dyads of the same gender, but opposite to themselves. With four participants present, our study introduces a new aspect of nonverbal synchrony, since as a dyad synchronizes, the other two participants are observing it. Nonverbal synchrony seems to be as important in couple therapy as in individual psychotherapy, but the presence of multiple participants makes the patterns more complex.Petra Nyman-SalonenPetra Nyman-SalonenVirpi-Liisa KykyriVirpi-Liisa KykyriWolfgang TschacherJoona MuotkaAnu TourunenMarkku PenttonenJaakko SeikkulaJaakko SeikkulaFrontiers Media S.A.articlecouple therapynonverbal synchronymotion energy analysissurrogate synchronytherapeutic allianceclient well-beingPsychologyBF1-990ENFrontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	couple therapy nonverbal synchrony motion energy analysis surrogate synchrony therapeutic alliance client well-being Psychology BF1-990
spellingShingle	couple therapy nonverbal synchrony motion energy analysis surrogate synchrony therapeutic alliance client well-being Psychology BF1-990 Petra Nyman-Salonen Petra Nyman-Salonen Virpi-Liisa Kykyri Virpi-Liisa Kykyri Wolfgang Tschacher Joona Muotka Anu Tourunen Markku Penttonen Jaakko Seikkula Jaakko Seikkula Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance
description	Nonverbal synchrony between individuals has a robust relation to the positive aspects of relationships. In psychotherapy, where talking is the cure, nonverbal synchrony has been related to a positive outcome of therapy and to a stronger therapeutic alliance between therapist and client in dyadic settings. Only a few studies have focused on nonverbal synchrony in multi-actor therapy conversations. Here, we studied the synchrony of head and body movements in couple therapy, with four participants present (spouses and two therapists). We analyzed more than 2000min of couple therapy videos from 11 couple therapy cases using Motion Energy Analysis and a Surrogate Synchrony (SUSY), a procedure used earlier in dyadic psychotherapy settings. SUSY was calculated for all six dyads per session, leading to synchrony computations for 66 different dyads. Significant synchrony occurred in all 29 analyzed sessions and between the majority of dyads. Complex models were used to determine the relations between nonverbal synchrony and the clients’ well-being and all participants’ evaluations of the therapeutic alliance. The clients’ well-being was related to body synchronies in the sessions. Differences were found between the clients’ and therapists’ alliance evaluations: the clients’ alliance evaluations were related to synchrony between both dyads of opposite gender, whereas the therapists’ alliance evaluations were related to synchrony between dyads of the same gender, but opposite to themselves. With four participants present, our study introduces a new aspect of nonverbal synchrony, since as a dyad synchronizes, the other two participants are observing it. Nonverbal synchrony seems to be as important in couple therapy as in individual psychotherapy, but the presence of multiple participants makes the patterns more complex.
format	article
author	Petra Nyman-Salonen Petra Nyman-Salonen Virpi-Liisa Kykyri Virpi-Liisa Kykyri Wolfgang Tschacher Joona Muotka Anu Tourunen Markku Penttonen Jaakko Seikkula Jaakko Seikkula
author_facet	Petra Nyman-Salonen Petra Nyman-Salonen Virpi-Liisa Kykyri Virpi-Liisa Kykyri Wolfgang Tschacher Joona Muotka Anu Tourunen Markku Penttonen Jaakko Seikkula Jaakko Seikkula
author_sort	Petra Nyman-Salonen
title	Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance
title_short	Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance
title_full	Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance
title_fullStr	Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance
title_full_unstemmed	Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance
title_sort	nonverbal synchrony in couple therapy linked to clients’ well-being and the therapeutic alliance
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/7fa155e6c3d9465989a2aad15c076ca7
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Nonverbal Synchrony in Couple Therapy Linked to Clients’ Well-Being and the Therapeutic Alliance

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