Silence in the psychotherapy of adolescents with borderline personality pathology.

Zimmermann, Ronan; Fürer, Lukas; Schenk, Nathalie; Koenig, Julian; Roth, Volker; Schlüter-Müller, Susanne; Kaess, Michael; Schmeck, Klaus (2021). Silence in the psychotherapy of adolescents with borderline personality pathology. Personality disorders: theory, research, and treatment, 12(2), pp. 160-170. American Psychological Association 10.1037/per0000402

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Silence in psychotherapy has been associated with different, sometimes opposing meanings. This study investigated silence during adolescent identity treatment in adolescent patients with borderline personality pathology. A more active therapeutic approach with less silence is advised in adolescent identity treatment. It was hypothesized that a session with more silence might be negatively perceived by adolescent patients. A total of 382 sessions that involved 21 female patients were analyzed. Silence was automatically detected from audio recordings. Diarization (segmenting an audio according to speaker identity) was performed. The patient's perception of the sessions was measured with the Session Evaluation Questionnaire. The amount of silence in the different speaker-switching patterns was not independent of one other. This finding supports the hypothesis of mutual attunement of patient and therapist concerning the amount of silence in a given session. Sessions with less silence were rated as being both smoother and better. The potential implications for clinical practice are discussed. The investigation of turn-taking and interpersonal temporal dynamics is relevant for psychotherapy research. The topic can be addressed efficiently using automated procedures.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy 04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Research Division
UniBE Contributor:	Koenig, Julian, Kaess, Michael
Subjects:	600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
ISSN:	1949-2715
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
Language:	English
Submitter:	Chantal Michel
Date Deposited:	24 Dec 2020 08:59
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:42
Publisher DOI:	10.1037/per0000402
PubMed ID:	32324008
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/148919