Aarno Laitila

• PhD
• Professor Emeritus at University of Jyväskylä

Arvosteltu teos: H. Charles Fishman – Performance Based Family Therapy – A Therapists’ Guide to Measurable Change. Routledge, 2022.

Tutkimus on osa CORE-hanketta, jonka tavoitteena on normittaa CORE-OM-mittaria (Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure) suomalaiseen toimintaympäristöön. CORE-OM-mittari on itsearviointilomake, jolla henkilö arvioi vointiaan 34 väittämän avulla. Otos koostui 210 vastaajasta. Mittarilla kartoitetaan koettua psyykkistä hyvinvointia...

Asiakkaita osallistavaa ja dialogista työotetta hyödyntävät konsultit kohtaavat työssään tilanteita, joissa työyhteisön jäsenten konsultointikeskustelussa esittämät työtä ja siihen liittyviä kehittämistarpeita koskevat näkemykset ovat keskenään ristiriitaisia. Keskustelua voi tällöin uhata juuttuminen vastakkainasetteluun, jossa konsultoinnin ihant...

Psykoterapian olemuksesta – psykoterapiailmiöstä eräiden Platonin käsitysten valossaTiivistelmä Tämä artikkeli liittyy väitöskirjakokonaisuuteen, joka käsittelee psykoterapian olemusta ja sen aatehistorilallista paikkaa. Artikkelin tarkoitus on kahtalainen. Toisaalta siinnä kiinnitetään huomiota psykoterapiatutkimuksen niihin puoliin, jotka kirjoit...

Empatialla on olennainen merkitys terapeuttisen muutoksen mahdollistajana, mutta sen toteutumista käytännössä on tutkittu suhteellisen vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus on tarkastella yksittäisten lausumien tasolla, kuinka noviisiterapeutit osoittavat empatiaa terapeuttisessa vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimuksen toinen tavoite on selvittää, kuinka edel...

Linda L. Chamberlain: Practicing psychotherapy. Lessons on helping patients and growing as a professional. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. 182 sivua.

Psykoterapiamuotojen jatkuvasti lisääntyessä yhä polttavammaksi nousee kysymys siitä, voidaanko tästä moninaisuudesta pelkistää jokin yleinen psykoterapian malli. Ehdotuksia tällaiseksi malliksi ovat esimerkiksi medikaalinen metamalli, assimilaatioanalyysi, dialogiseen sekvenssianalyysiin perustuva malli, Morrisin käsitteellinen metamalli ja Bruce...

Objective This study examined the different dimensions of interoception in psychotherapists to better understand the significance of interoception in therapeutic work. Methods Data on objectively defined interoceptive accuracy, response confidence and subjectively assessed interoceptive awareness were collected from psychotherapists. Forty Finnish...

Background Suicidal persons’ contacts with services present a key opportunity for suicide prevention. However, interventions by services are not always effective. A deeper understanding of suicidal service users’ agency and its implications may facilitate the provision of meaningful responses to help-seeking during suicidal crises. This abductive s...

Introduction Sense of control is an integral part of well‐being. Studies have reported on the connection between loss of control and psychological symptoms. However, loss of sense of control has not yet been studied from the perspective of psychotherapists. Methods This study had three research objectives: to find out how psychotherapists define l...

Parental self-efficacy is a significant factor that influences parenthood. It is important to pay attention to this factor when treating children with conduct problems. This study examined the ways how parental self-efficacy is supported in family therapy, where family has come due to children`s conduct problems. Also, the way how supporting parent...

ABSTRACT Background A history of attempted suicide is the most significant predictor of suicidal death. Several brief interventions aimed at tertiary suicide prevention have been investigated in clinical trials. However, suicide attempt survivors’ experiences of such interventions have rarely been reported. Objective To explore how suicide atte...

In this article, we seek to clarify the historical and philosophical roots of Bion’s somewhat enigmatic concept of reverie. We also reflect on the rhetorical reasons for Bion’s decision to introduce the concept into psychotherapeutic discourse. Although Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud (1894) had used the term in their Studies on Hysteria, prior to B...

Family members bereaved by their loved ones’ suicidal death normally undergo a complicated and lengthy bereavement process. In this qualitative case study, we explored longitudinal changes in the suicide bereavement process by applying assimilation analysis, based on the Assimilation Model (AM) and the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale...

Triggering factors play an important role in the development of psychological disorders. Practicing psychotherapists have valuable knowledge on psychological disorders and since their views on triggering factors have not been reported in the literature, triggers were addressed in this study from psychotherapists' perspectives. The following three m...

Background Suicide attempt survivors are at high risk of re-attempts and suicide death. Previous research has shown that service users’ experiences of post-attempt care are related to future treatment engagement and re-attempts. In-depth understanding of how current services meet service users’ needs in the period immediately following a suicide at...

We reflect on family therapy and its history from two points of view, as an entity that becomes understood with the help of a twofold concept of a game, and a twofold concept of liberty. Systemic family therapy has always been comprehended with the help of game theory. Its development becomes more properly understood if we keep in mind that game it...

In general, arousal of emotions is often felt and expressed as somatic experience in the body. In Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), the deepening of emotional experiencing enables therapeutic change. This research explores the experiences of eight experienced EFT trainer therapists regarding their somatic experiences in their work with coup...

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tarkastella yhden uhmakkuushäiriö- ja Aspergerin oireyhtymän diagnoosin saaneen lapsen ja hänen perheensä hyvinvoinnissa tapahtunutta muutosta perheterapiaprosessin aikana. Psykoterapiaprosessin aikana tapahtuva muutos on usein moniulotteista, ja muutoksen tunnistaminen voi olla haastavaa. Muutokseen usein vaikut...

Bruce Wampoldin kontekstuaalinen psykoterapia-ajattelu: Kohti psykoterapian metamallia? Psykoterapiamuotojen jatkuvasti lisääntyessä yhä polttavammaksi nousee kysymys siitä, voidaanko tästä moninaisuudesta pelkistää jokin yleinen psykoterapian malli. Ehdotuksia tällaiseksi malliksi ovat esimerkiksi medikaalinen metamalli, assimilaatioanalyysi, dial...

This study aimed to shed light on the initial-stage bereavement experiences of an individual bereaved by suicide, at three months from the loss of his spouse to suicide. A semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted with the individual, a man in his thirties. The data were analyzed using qualitative assimilation analysis, based on the Assimila...

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), an attachment-based couple therapy, views emotion as being central to the process of therapeutic change. As affect arousal of emotion is a somatic reaction, the purpose of this study was to focus on therapists’ interventions classified as noting and commenting on clients’ somatic cue of emotional experience...

Abstract Objective: The aim of the study was to facilitate the under�standing and interpretation of multiple aspects of working with mothers by examining Finnish mothers’ mothering discourses and the interplay among these discourses. Background: According to relational dialectics theory, dis�courses are systems of meaning that are coproduced in int...

This article reports a qualitative study of cognitive assessments of three teenagers with sensory and multiple disabilities, including moderate to profound developmental disability. The aim was to evaluate the possibilities for adapting standardized tests and the implementation of interactional partnership in assessment. Cognitive assessments were...

The development of psychological disorders has been explained by several psychological theories and remains under debate. Psychotherapists, however, have insights into the emergence and development of psychological disorders that stem from both theory and practice. The constantly evolving field of psychotherapy prompts reconsideration, specifically...

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, an experiential modality, views emotion central to therapeutic change. In this exploratory study, we examined therapists' repetition of somatically focused interventions (therapist verbalizing somatic cues, such as facial expressions) and their impact on clients' emotional experiencing in-session. We also assesse...

Artikkelimme on ensimmäinen osa kaksiosaisesta artikkelikokonaisuudesta, jossa tarkastelemme perheterapian aate-ja tiedehistoriaa pelin käsitteen ja siitä implisiittisesti esitettyjen tulkintojen kautta. Vaikka pelin käsite ei tällä hetkellä olekaan perheterapeuttisen ajattelun keskiössä, se on ollut yksi niistä heuristisista mielikuvista, jotka ov...

We applied the assimilation of problematic experiences sequence (APES) to a six-year-old girl’s processing of traumatic experiences involving violence and death in play therapy. We analyzed the post-session notes from the first 34 sessions of a much longer treatment, during which the girl repeatedly enacted a drama we called the cottage play, invol...

Major life changes may cause an autobiographical rupture and a need to work on one’s narrative identity. This article introduces a new qualitative interview methodology originally developed to facilitate 10 prostate cancer patients and five spouses in the (re)creation of their life narratives in the context of a series of interventive interviews co...

Applying Dialogical Methods for Investigations of Happening of Change (DIHC), this study investigated how children who had been diagnosed with an oppositional defiant or conduct disorder participated in a collaborative post-therapy research interview and talked about their experiences of family therapy. The results showed that the children particip...

Major life changes may cause an autobiographical rupture and a need to work on one’s narrative identity. This article introduces a new qualitative interview methodology originally developed to facilitate 10 prostate cancer patients and five spouses in the (re)creation of their life narratives in the context of a series of interventive interviews co...

Children with conduct disorders are at risk of being positioned in the family therapy as 'the problem'. This study describes how the difficulties were talked about and how the child coped in this situation. The results showed: the parents produced symptom-oriented problem talk about the child's behavior, rendering systemic reformulation of the prob...

Emotions are central in therapeutic work, but interventions for violence vary in how they address emotions. While emotional work with perpetrators is often associated with ‘anger management’ and behavioural elements, a more comprehensive view of emotions might be beneficial in efforts to stop and prevent violent behaviour. Perpetrators’ self-regula...

The first chapter presents the book’s point of departure as well as its central concepts and structure. It outlines the current understandings of and theoretical approaches to the intersections of violence, gender and affect. The starting point is that gendered violence and violating practices are embedded in social structures of power and in inequ...

This book presents new conceptual and theoretical approaches to violence studies. As the first research anthology to examine violating interpersonal, institutional and ideological practices as both gendered and affective processes, it raises novel questions and offers insights for understanding and resolving social and cultural problems related to...

Few studies have explored the disclosure of child physical abuse although child sexual abuse disclosure has been widely studied and debated for years. The present study explores the characteristics of child physical abuse disclosures and compares them to previously published findings on child sexual abuse disclosure from the same data. The data con...

The hiding aspect of shame makes the study of shame difficult. In this article we aim to show through Hanna's case study how shame manifests and develops during the course of one psychotherapy process. This will be done using Assimilation analysis (APES) and Dialogical Sequence Analysis (DSA) to show in detail one idiosyncratic developmental path t...

As a multifaceted phenomenon, family secrets affect interaction in the therapeutic system. This qualitative study, applying the multi‐actor Dialogical Methods for Investigations of Happening of Change, explored how children participated and positioned themselves in family therapy in a climate of family secrets. The results showed that the children...

Our starting point in this article is that the question of the essence of psychotherapy has to some extent been neglected. Its medical context has strengthened the tendency to interpret psychotherapy in general from a technical and overtly rationalistic standpoint. Instead, we would underline the importance of the philosophical and historical roots...

This chapter presents a couple therapy session from four different research perspectives: The verbal dialogue was analysed with the Dialogical Investigations of Happenings of Change method, the embodied reactions of each participant were analysed by examining the electrodermal activity of each participant, and nonverbal synchrony was observed betwe...

Social welfare service and health care providers are in a key position to implement successful domestic violence (DV) interventions. However, it is known that DV intervention and prevention work is often lacking in coordination and continuity. In addition, the limited resources, hectic work pace, and changing practices negatively affect the develop...

Psykoterapian olemuksesta - psykoterapiailmiöstä eräiden Platonin filosofian näkemysten valossa Tämä artikkeli liittyy tutkimuskokonaisuuteen, joka käsittelee psykoterapian olemusta ja sen aatehistoriallista paikkaa. Tutkimuksessa tarkastelemme psykoterapiaa muusta kuin ahtaasti ymmärretyistä lääketieteen tai empiirisen psykologian näkökulmista. Py...

Häpeään ilmiönä liittyvä piiloutuminen tekee sen tieteellisesti uskottavasta näkyväksi tekemisestä ja kuvauksesta haastavaa. Tässä artikkelissa pyritään kuvaamaan Hannan tapaustutkimuksen kautta, miten häpeä ilmentyy ja muuttuu psykoterapiassa. Tämä tehdään käyttäen assimilaatioanalyysia ja dialogista sekvenssianalyysia menetelminä osoittamaan, mit...

Tiivistelmät Noviisina auttamaan – empatian merkitys terapeuttisessa vuorovaikutuksessa Empatialla on olennainen merkitys terapeuttisen muutoksen mahdollistajana, mutta sen toteutumista käytännössä on tutkittu suhteellisen vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus on tarkastella yksittäisten lausumien tasolla, kuinka noviisiterapeutit osoittavat empatiaa...

Perheterapian ydinajatus kiteytyy sen dialogisuuteen, mutta lapsilla ei ole tasavertaista asemaa perheterapian vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, miten terapeuttisen systeemin aikuiset asemoivat uhmakkuus- tai käytöshäiriödiagnoosin saaneita lapsia perheterapiassa. Ilmiötä lähestytään vuorovaikutuksen ongelmatilanteiden ja lapsen näk...

Dialogisessa prosessikonsultaatiossa asiakas nähdään ongelmiensa ja niihin liittyvien ratkaisujen omistajana. Konsultaatiokeskusteluissa asiakasta tuetaan ottamaan vastuuta tilanteesta ja asettumaan toimijaksi suhteessa sen ratkaisemiseen. Näiden ihanteiden edistämistä konsultaation vuorovaikutuskäytännöissä on kuitenkin tutkittu varsin vähän. Täss...

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe parents’ experiences of jointly regulating their emotions when their child gets life-threateningly sick. The aim of this study was also to find out the parents’ experiences of the significance of dyadic emotion regulation for their personal coping and to discover the challenges in their dyadic em...

This article reports on the added value of embodied responses identified through sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in couple therapy research. It focuses on moments of change and the timing of therapeutic interventions or therapeutic moves in a couple therapy session. The data for this single-case study comprise couple therapy process video...

The subjective experiences of participants in couple therapy have been explored through Stimulated Recall Interviews (SRIs), in which both clients and therapists come individually to watch video clips of their therapy sessions. We believe SRIs offer a good resource for Practice Oriented Research (POR) by promoting meaningful, flexible interplay bet...

Abstract Most previous studies on disclosing child sexual abuse (CSA) have either been retrospective or focused on children who already have disclosed. The present study aimed to explore the overall CSA disclosure rate and factors associated with disclosing to adults in a large population-based sample. A representative sample of 11,364 sixth and ni...

The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) is a 34-item self-report measure designed to monitor changes in psychiatric patients. It has been translated into 25 languages, including Finnish. This is the first psychometric exploration of Finnish CORE-OM data. The aim of the study is to examine acceptability, internal consis...

Este artículo presenta la traducción y adaptación al idioma Español del método “Investigaciones Dialógicas de Cambio” (IDC). Este método se enmarca en el enfoque dialógico y en la aproximación del Diálogo Abierto (DA) para el tratamiento psicoterapéutico. Se revisan brevemente los principales conceptos del DA que nutren el método IDC y a continuaci...

Abstract This study explored the effect of training on investigative interviewers’ attitudes and beliefs related to child sexual abuse (CSA). The one-year training provided knowledge about the influence of attitudes and beliefs when investigating alleged crimes against children, guidance for using an interview protocol developed by National Institu...

Este artículo presenta la traducción y adaptación al idioma Español del método “Investigaciones Dialógicas de Cambio” (IDC) (Seikkula, Laitila y Rober, 2012). Este método se enmarca en el enfoque dialógico y en la aproximación del Diálogo Abierto (DA) (Seikkula y Olson, 2005; Seikkula y Trimble, 2005) para el tratamiento psicoterapéutico. Se revisa...

Recent studies on gaze behaviours in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have utilised “live eye tracking.” Such research has focused on generating quantitative eye tracking measurements, which provide limited (if any) qualitative contextual details of the actual interactions in which gaze occurs. This article presents a novel methodolo...

Background: An increasing need exists for suitable measures to evaluate treatment outcome in adolescents. YP-CORE is a pan-theoretical brief questionnaire developed for this purpose, but it lacks studies in different cultures or languages. Aims: To explore the acceptability, factor structure, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of the...

The idea of meta‐dialogue has evolved over the past twenty years. The study reported here focuses on meta‐dialogue, analysing the importance of reflective practices for thoughtfulness and embodiment in couple therapy for psychological Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The study also sought to determine whether, in a case of psychological IPV, reflec...

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reportedly have difficulties in responding to bids for joint attention, notably in following pointing gestures. Previous studies have predominantly built on structured observation measures and predefined coding categories to measure children’s responsiveness to gestures. However, how these gestures are d...

Although there is controversy concerning indications for conjoint therapy in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), both research and practice have come to recognize that it has some important benefits. This study analyzes issues of dominance and dialogue in a conjoint therapy for psychological IPV within a naturalistic setting, in which the spouses soug...

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are vulnerable to interactional trouble: difficulties in speaking, hearing and understanding. Prior conversation analytic (CA) work has examined how interactional trouble gets repaired mostly in verbal interactions among neurotypical speakers. Non-CA examinations have mainly been concerned with how child...

Background. The Sally-Anne test has been extensively used to examine children’s theory of mind understanding. Many task-related factors have been suggested to impact children’s performance on this test. Yet little is known about the interactional aspects of such dyadic assessment situations that might contribute to the ways in which children respon...

This case is a part of the first author’s current PhD research on interactions involving children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Children with ASD are proposed to have difficulties in coordinating and sharing attention with a partner to an external (“third”) object or a feature in the environment – also referred to as joint attention or triad...

Abstract Psychotherapy research has been able to reveal how the therapists do what they are able to articulate as their basic repertory of doing psychotherapy. The research has also shown that the therapists do additional, equally important things which are not usually included in their own accounts of their therapeutic practice and preferences. Th...

Psychotherapy research has been able to reveal how the therapists do what they are able to articulate as their basic repertory of doing psychotherapy. The research has also shown that the therapists do additional, equally important things which are not usually included in their own accounts of their therapeutic practice and preferences. Therapeutic...

Abstract: Aim: To analyze, with a special focus on the complex positioning achieved by the therapists, how the issues of responsibility, safety, and trust are dealt with in couple therapy where one partner has used abusive behavior. Data were analyzed using a dialogical approach. Background: In the field of intimate partner violence (IPV) there is...

The study examined the reliability and validity of the Finnish version of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure (COREOM), which is a 34-item selfreport instrument of psychological problems. The non-clinical sample consisted of 210 Finnish participants with different life situations. The analysis included internal reliability...

Background Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterised as having challenges in the social use of eye-gaze (e.g., Chawarska, Macari, & Shic, 2013). The research on eye-gaze behaviours is often conducted in carefully controlled settings; less is known about the use of eye-gaze during naturally occurring interactions (but see Nori...

ABSTRACT. Violence is a serious problem, and social and health care providers are in a key position for implementing successful interventions. This qualitative study of 6 focus groups with professionals (n = 30) examines the health care professionals’ ways of framing a domestic violence intervention. Of special interest here is how professionals se...

This article reports an analysis of conjoint therapy for psychological intimate partner violence, treated via a dialogical approach. The article reviews current controversies surrounding this treatment modality and its outcome. The dialogical approach is presented as an appropriate method for analyzing and understanding the issue of violence, but i...

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been reported to exhibit difficulties in tests measuring mental state understanding, such as the Sally-Anne task. There are also vast performance differences among these children, usually explained by individual or task-related factors. Little is known about the interactional factors of face-to-fac...

Triadisen vuorovaikutuksen tutkimus on osoittanut, että autismin kirjon lapsilla on vaikeuksia tarkkaavaisuuden suuntaamisessa kuten esimerkiksi osoittamiseleiden seuraamisessa. Tyypillisesti tällainen havainnoiva tutkimus käyttää menetelmänään teoriaan pohjautuvia koodauskategorioita. Koodauskategoriat ovat hyödyllisiä triadisten taitojen määrälli...

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often linked with difficulties in triadic interaction or joint attention. This paper investigated the communicative competencies that children with ASD might have in these skills. We report findings from a pilot case study that focused on a school-aged child with ASD who interacted with his adult co-participants in...

Background and aim Physicians’ attitudes predict clinical decision making and treatment choices, but the association between attitudes and behaviour is complex. Treatment guidelines for non-specific low back pain (LBP) include recommendations of early assessment of psychosocial risk factors forchronic pain, patient education and reassurance. Implic...

This article discusses the enhancement of reflexivity and reflective thinking during the counselling and psychotherapy training processes and presents the description of a training method designed to promote this objective. Reflexivity is seen as the key dimension of expertise. It can be viewed as an individual capacity, an interactive activity, or...

In recent years, a number of family therapists have conceptualized psychotherapy as a dialogical activity. This view presents family therapy researchers with specific challenges, the most important of which is to find ways of dealing with the dialogical qualities of the multi-actor dialogues that occur, for example, in family therapeutic conversati...

As part of a larger research project on couple therapy for depression, this qualitative case study examines the nature of dialogue. Drawing on Bakhtinian concepts, the investigation shows how the conversation shifts from a monologue to dialogue. Among the findings are: first, the process of listening is integral to the transforming experience. That...

Intervening in domestic violence in the health care and social service settings is a complex and contested issue. In this qualitative, multidisciplinary study, the barriers to but also the possibilities for health care professionals in encountering victims of violence were scrutinised. The focus was on omissions in service structure and practices....

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää potilaiden lähisuhdeväkivaltakokemusten yleisyyttä, koetun väkivallan muotoja ja toistuvuutta sekä hoidontarvetta. Tutkimus toteutettiin Keski-Suomen keskussairaalan synnytysyksikössä, päivystysalueella sekä psykiatrisessa sairaalassa. Tutkimukseen osallistui yhteensä 530 potilasta. Projektin pilottiyksiköide...

A multi-professional co-operation in preventing and treating domestic violence started in Jyväskylä, Finland, in 1995. The basic aim of this co-operation is to inform and educate different agencies to recognize violence against women and children, and organize and offer services for them. It consists of separate programmes for victims, women and ch...