Journal of consulting and clinical psychology
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J Consult Clin Psychol · Jun 2011
Nonverbal synchrony in psychotherapy: coordinated body movement reflects relationship quality and outcome.
The authors quantified nonverbal synchrony--the coordination of patient's and therapist's movement--in a random sample of same-sex psychotherapy dyads. The authors contrasted nonverbal synchrony in these dyads with a control condition and assessed its association with session-level and overall psychotherapy outcome. ⋯ The results suggest that nonverbal synchrony embodies the patients' self-reported quality of the relationship and further variables of therapy process. This hitherto overlooked facet of therapeutic relationships might prove useful as an indicator of therapy progress and outcome.