Nonverbal synchrony in psychotherapy: Coordinated body movement reflects relationship quality and outcome.

TLDR

The authors used Motion Energy Analysis to quantify nonverbal synchrony in 104 videotaped same‑sex psychotherapy sessions from 70 patients, randomly sampled from an archive, and compared synchrony to a shuffled control condition while linking it to session‑level and overall outcomes via self‑report questionnaires. Higher nonverbal synchrony was observed in genuine interactions versus a shuffled control, and it correlated with patients’ reports of high relationship quality, self‑efficacy, and greater symptom reduction, suggesting synchrony could serve as an indicator of therapy progress and outcome.

Abstract

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.Using an automated objective video analysis algorithm (Motion Energy Analysis; MEA), the authors calculated nonverbal synchrony in (n = 104) videotaped psychotherapy sessions from 70 Caucasian patients (37 women, 33 men, mean age = 36.5 years, SD = 10.2) treated at an outpatient psychotherapy clinic. The sample was randomly drawn from an archive (N = 301) of routinely videotaped psychotherapies. Patients and their therapists assessed session impact with self-report post-session questionnaires. A battery of pre- and postsymptomatology questionnaires measured therapy effectiveness.The authors found that nonverbal synchrony is higher in genuine interactions contrasted with pseudointeractions (a control condition generated by a specifically designed shuffling procedure). Furthermore, nonverbal synchrony is associated with session-level process as well as therapy outcome: It is increased in sessions rated by patients as manifesting high relationship quality and in patients experiencing high self-efficacy. Higher nonverbal synchrony characterized psychotherapies with higher symptom reduction.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.