
Robert ElliottUniversity of Strathclyde · School of Psychological Sciences and Health
Robert Elliott
Ph.D., Psychology
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
November 2004 - May 2006
September 1978 - July 2006
September 2006 - present
Education
October 1972 - August 1978
Publications
Publications (242)
This study aimed to explore the structure and dynamics of clients’ session reactions using longitudinal network modeling. Data from three samples were combined: two general outpatient samples of emotion-focused therapy and one sample of clients suffering from crime-related posttraumatic stress disorder. All clients were treated with emotion-focused...
The therapist-client relationship in psychotherapy is considered one of the most important factors in promoting well-being and facilitating change in clients. This pioneering book provides a novel perspective on relationships by focusing on how they are accomplished through client-therapist interactions. Drawing on the key concept of affiliation fr...
Therapist empathic reflections are used to communicate understanding of client communications and experiences. Originally associated with person-centered and experiential psychotherapies, they have been adopted by psychotherapists from a range of approaches. We begin with definitions and subtypes of empathic reflection, drawing on relevant research...
Objective:
This study aimed to develop an updated brief self-report post-session measure, suitable for collecting systematic feedback on clients' session reactions in the context of measurement-based care (MBC).
Method:
The Session Reactions Scale-3 (SRS-3; 33 items) was developed by extending and adjusting the Revised Session Reactions Scale. I...
Partner empathy is critical in couple relationships and couple therapy, yet little is known about empathic communication processes in couples. In this study, we use task analysis to identify how clients convey empathy to their romantic partners in couple therapy. Drawing from 28 recorded couple therapy sessions that capture successful and unsuccess...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...
Objective: We present a mixed methods systematic review of the effectiveness of therapist empathic reflections, which have been adopted by a range of approaches to communicate an understanding of client communications and experiences. Methods: We begin with definitions and subtypes of empathic reflection, drawing on relevant research and theory, in...
Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) involves anxiety about the possible return or progression of the disease. It is common among people surviving cancer, covering a range of adaptive and maladaptive responses including clinical presentations of FCR, for which different psychological interventions have been developed, most within the cognitive‐behaviour...
In this article we advocate for extending our concept and practice of empathy to include both physical and psychological symptoms, and the personal presenting meanings encoded in them. We make the case that when clients present medical symptoms in therapy, these should be explored and empathized with. First we explore the meaning and function of ph...
Objective: Emotion-Focused Skills Training (EFST) is a 12-week parental program based on EmotionFocused Therapy, developed to improve children and adolescents’ mental health problems.
Methods: In a randomized clinical dismantling study, including parents of 236 children and adolescents (ages 6–13, Mage 8.9, 60.6% boys, 95.8% Caucasian) with externa...
Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a main concern for most cancer survivors and can bring significant distress impacting well-being and quality of life. Although other psychological approaches have been developed for dysfunctional FCR, based on previous research, Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) might also be a relevant intervention for treating this...
The present study aimed to test the reliability and validity of the Person Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale–Young Person version (PCEPS-YP). This is a newly developed and adapted 9-item scale which aims to measure counsellor competences in, and adherence to, person-centred practice, when working with adolescents. Counselling practice wa...
We review recent research on humanistic-experiential psychotherapies (HEPs), which include person-centered therapy (PCT), emotion-focused therapy (EFT), gestalt, and psychodrama approaches, along with generic relationship control conditions characterized as supportive or nondirective. A key part of this review is a meta-analysis of 91 studies of th...
The Strathclyde Inventory is a self-report instrument assessing Rogers’ concept of the fully functioning person. Using data collected from a UK-based counseling service, we investigated its validity for use as an outcome measure, and produced a 12-item brief version that maintained fit to the Rasch model and construct representation.
In this commentary we discuss the two examples of systematic case study research in this issue: Miller et al., (2021), who continue the development of the quasi-judicial Panels of Psychological Inquiry method by applying it to a child client with an autistic spectrum condition; and Bohart et al. (2021), who apply their research jury approach to a v...
Objective: We tested qualitative metasynthesis of a series of Hermeneutic Single Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) studies as a method for comparing within-session processes that may explain good and poor therapeutic outcome. Method: We selected eight HSCED studies according to change in clients’ scores on the Strathclyde Inventory (SI), a brief self-re...
Background
The UK Government's implementation in 2008 of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative in England has hugely increased the availability of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for the treatment of depression and anxiety in primary care. Counselling for depression—a form of person-centred experiential therapy (PCET...
Objectives
In emotion‐focused therapy (EFT) relational processes between the therapist and client are not normally an explicit focus unless the therapist and client encounter difficulties that interfere with therapeutic work. When this does happen, however, relational dialogue (including meta‐communication) becomes necessary. We present the princip...
Psychotherapy is a well-established, efficacious, and fully accepted treatment for mental disorders and psychological problems. Psychotherapy is an interpersonal practice engaging patient values, interests, and personal meanings at every step. Thereby, psychotherapy abounds with moral issues. In psychotherapy ethics, numerous moral issues converge,...
The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. There was an omission to the original acknowledgement. The acknowledgement should have read: We would also like to express our gratitude to the rater, Mary Hamilton for her expertise and time commitment given freely to this project.
Empathy refers to understanding what another person is experiencing or trying to express. The chapter begins by discussing definitional issues and presenting an integrative definition. It then reviews measures of therapist empathy, including the conceptual problem of separating empathy from other relationship variables. Clinical examples illustrati...
Psychotherapy Relationships That Work is the definitive, evidence-based book on the topic: Volume 1 contains 16 chapters that address what works in general and Volume 2 consists of 11 chapters that address what works for particular patients. Each chapter presents definitions, clinical examples, landmark studies, comprehensive meta-analyses, diversi...
Background
The aim of this research was to identify facilitative therapeutic principles in person‐centred and emotion‐focused therapy for working with traumatised clients in the early stages of therapy.
Methods
Four cases were selected from the Strathclyde Experiential Therapy for Social Anxiety archive: one good and one poor outcome case from eac...
EFT case study with a patient with severe fear of cancer recurrence
Bringing the insights of discursive researchers and discursive practitioners, we conceptualize and provide empirical evidence for "discursive ethics." For us, disucrsive ethics are ways of practice that are reciprocal and non-hierarchical when it comes to how professionals engage clients in meaning-making dialogues and processes based on client pre...
Put simply, empathy refers to understanding what another person is experiencing or trying to express. Therapist empathy has a long history as a hypothesized key change process in psychotherapy. We begin by discussing definitional issues and presenting an integrative definition. We then review measures of therapist empathy, including the conceptual...
Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a significant issue for most cancer survivors, with nearly half of cancer survivors reporting it at moderate to high levels of intensity. We aimed to further explore the experience of having FCR from the point of view of patients by systematically reviewing qualitative studies. Following PRISMA guidelines, 87 qual...
The paper offers a perspective on some of the methodological issues present in current qualitative psychotherapy research (QPR). The authors are involved in this type of research (for 20 and 40 years, respectively) as researchers, as reviewers of papers submitted to journals publishing QPR, as well as past editors of such journals. The authors refl...
In this chapter, we link ethical practice and discursive theory and research and introduce discursive ethics of practice as a therapeutic concept and orientation embedded within a postmodern or discursive worldview. Central to our discursive view of ethical practice is an empirical focus on how therapist and client negotiate the meanings and conver...
The Strathclyde Inventory (SI) was created as an outcome measure to go beyond symptom intensity. It is designed to assess personality development such as congruent and flexible functioning from a person-centered perspective. The present study validated the data obtained from the 22-item French version of the SI collected in eight samples, including...
Put simply, empathy refers to understanding what another person is experiencing or trying to express. Therapist empathy has a long history as a hypothesized key change process in psychotherapy. We begin by discussing definitional issues and presenting an integrative definition. We then review measures of therapist empathy, including the conceptual...
The demand to implement routine outcome assessment in mental health care services calls for measures with clinical utility, i.e. feasible to therapists, acceptable to clients and generalizable to settings. An exploratory sequential research design was used to study the clinical utility of an individualized outcome measure, the Personal Questionnair...
Therapist in-session experiences of momentary disconnection from clients have not been previously studied. Four person-centered therapists participated in semi-structured in-depth one-to-one interviews to investigate the nature of these experiences. Using grounded theory analyses and drawing on concepts from emotion-focused therapy and pre-therapy,...
The aim of this analysis was to explore whether pre-treatment intervention preferences were related to outcomes for patients with persistent sub-threshold and mild depression who received one of two treatment types. Thirty-six patients took part in a two-arm, parallel group, pilot randomized controlled trial that compared short term (3 month and 6...
The person-centered approach has paid little attention to persons with autistic process, in spite of their often experiencing high levels of psychological distress. We present the main arguments for a group therapy adaptation of Emotion-Focused Therapy for people on the autistic spectrum (EFT-AS). The principles of this approach are described here....
Social anxiety (SA) is a common, disabling difficulty characterized by persistent fear of other people. After a brief clinical description, we present an emotion-focused therapy (EFT) theory of SA: We describe its developmental origins in experiences of social degradation, which result in primary emotional processes organized around a core sense of...
Background:
NICE guidelines state cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a front-line psychological treatment for people presenting with depression in primary care. Counselling for Depression (CfD), a form of Person-Centred Experiential therapy, is also offered within Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services for moderate depress...
The present review relies on qualitative data about fear of cancer recurrence experience. Preliminary results are presented.
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), can have difficulties in emotion processing, including recognising their own and others' emotions, leading to problems in emotion regulation and interpersonal relating. This study reports the development and piloting of the Client Emotional Processing Scale-Autism Spectrum (CEPS-AS), a new observer measur...
Small-N designs, such as systematic case studies and single-case experiments, are a potentially appealing way of blending science and practice, since they enable clinicians to integrate formal research methods into their everyday work. There are two main types of design: single-case experiments and naturalistic case studies. Small-N designs can mak...
This chapter focuses on the final stage of clinical psychology research methods. The final stage of the research process involves making sense of data, first by the researcher, and then for a wider audience. This stage can itself be broken down into three parts: analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. All forms of qualitative analysis engage i...
This chapter has two separate sections: sampling and ethics. Sampling refers to the process of specifying and obtaining the participants for the study. There are three steps: specifying the target population; choosing the sampling procedure; and determining the sample size. The chapter deals with each of these steps and then considers some alternat...
Practicing psychologists may choose to do research, or not to, for a variety of personal reasons. This chapter attempts to shed light on the research process from three perspectives: philosophical, professional, and personal. The process of psychological research is similar to that of open-minded enquiry in everyday life. This chapter examines some...
Evaluation is applied research that aims to assess the worth of a service. It includes service audit, quality assurance, needs assessment, and outcomes evaluation. Evaluation researchers often face a Hobson's choice: they can either collect inadequate data or no data at all. The chapter examines some of evaluation research's basic concepts and spec...
In the biological and physical sciences, various forms of observation are the only possible data collection method, since the objects of study are animals, plants, and inanimate objects. In psychology, however, researchers have a choice: whether to use observation, self-report, or a combination of the two. Observation can take many forms. The advan...
Qualitative research aims to study people's thoughts, experiences, feelings, or use of language in depth and detail. The main advantage of qualitative methods is that they allow a rich description. They draw upon two main philosophical traditions, phenomenology and constructionism, although there is considerable diversity within, and overlap betwee...
This chapter explains how to measure a psychological construct, which depends on the research questions, the theoretical framework, and the available resources. Measures can be classified into self-report and observation, and also according to whether they are qualitative or quantitative. The chapter defines some key terms and looks at the general...
This chapter focuses on practical issues in getting a research project started. It covers the first stage of the research process, which is labeled as the groundwork stage. The chapter first considers how the research questions are formulated and specified in a research proposal. Next, it looks at the politics of research in clinical settings and o...
This chapter discusses procedures for constructing self-report methods, such as interviews and questionnaires. The advantages of self-report are that it gives the person's own perspective, and that there is no other way to access the person's own experience. There are both qualitative and quantitative approaches to self-report. The main qualitative...
This chapter deals with the design phase of a research project in clinical psychology. It examines nonexperimental and experimental designs, and their various subtypes, and also looks at some general principles for assessing validity in research designs. Most psychotherapy outcome studies use an experimental design. The chapter uses a comparative o...
We present a range of evidence for the reliability and validity of data generated by the Personal Questionnaire (PQ), a client-generated individualized outcome measure, using five data sets from three countries. Overall pre-therapy mean internal consistency (alpha) across clients was .80; within-client alphas averaged .77; clients typically had one...
This chapter highlights the potential and variety of qualitative methods that can be applied to counselling and psychotherapy outcome research. The chapter’s main focus is on outlining the various forms of qualitative data collection methods that are available to researchers. This is followed by an overview of the various qualitative analysis metho...
Objective:
Over the past 25 years, humanistic psychotherapy (HP) researchers have actively contributed to the development and implementation of innovative practice-informed research measures and coding systems.
Method:
Qualitative and quantitative research findings, including meta-analyses, support the identification of HP approaches as evidence...
Abstract On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the journal, Psychotherapy Research, three former editors first look back at: (i) the controversial persistence of the Dodo verdict (i.e., the observation that all bona fide therapies seem equally effective); (ii) the connection between process and outcome; (iii) the move toward methodological plu...
Persistent sub-threshold depressive symptoms are important because almost all patients who experience symptoms for more than 2 years go on to develop major depressive episodes. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the United Kingdom recommends research into the efficacy of person centred counselling and low-intensity cognitive b...
Reviews the book, Gestalt Therapy in Clinical Practice: From Psychopathology to the Aesthetics of Contact edited by Gianni Francesetti, Michela Gecele, and Jan Roubal (2013). In this historic, encyclopedic work, a group of well-known, talented Italian Gestalt therapists and trainers contribute close to half of the 33 chapters. Around this core are...
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Aims: This study aimed to assess the reliability of the Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS), a new adherence/competence measure of person-centred and experiential psychotherapies. The PCEPS consists of 15 items with two subscales: Person-Centred Process and Experiential Process. Method: One-hundred twenty audio-recorded segm...
Hermeneutic Single-case Efficacy Design (HSCED) was applied to a good-outcome case in which an individual presenting with social anxiety (SA) received 13 sessions of nondirective Person-centered therapy. A Rich Case Record of qualitative and quantitative data gathered over the course of therapy was constructed, and provided the basis for affirmativ...
The Leuven Systematic Case-study Protocol was used to analyze the therapeutic trajectory of a young woman suffering from anxiety problems. The LSCS protocol is a broad-spectrum monitoring tool that contains both quantitative and qualitative processes, effects and relational climate measurements. This case-study shows how relational and task-oriente...
Objective:
Despite an increasing recognition of the relevance and significance of self-compassion processes, little research has explored interventions that seek to enhance these in therapy. In this study, we examined the compassionate self-soothing task of emotion-focused therapy involving two-chair work, with seven clients.
Method:
Conversatio...
Abstract
Objective: Over the past 25 years, humanistic psychotherapy (HP) researchers have actively contributed to the development and implementation of innovative practice-informed research measures and coding systems. Method: Qualitative and quantitative research findings, including meta-analyses, support the identification of HP approaches as ev...
The purpose of the study was to discover how individuals diagnosed with a life-limiting illness experienced themselves as agents, even in the face of death. In this qualitative, multiple case study design, 4 female outpatient hospice patients with terminal illnesses received humanistic counseling to explore their experiences of themselves and their...
Aims: This study aimed to assess the reliability of the Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy Scale (PCEPS), a new adherence/competence measure of person-centred and experiential psychotherapies. The PCEPS consists of 15 items with two subscales: Person-Centred Process and Experiential Process. Method: One-hundred twenty audio-recorded segm...
Anxiety difficulties are an increasingly important focus for person-centered/experiential (PCE) psychotherapies. I begin by reviewing person-centered, focusing-oriented, and emotion-focused therapy (EFT) theories of anxiety. Next, I summarize a meta-analysis of 19 outcome studies of PCE therapies for adults with anxiety, most commonly supportive or...
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