Alpern, Priya (9/13) When the patient leaves: an exploration of trainee therapist emotional responses to unilateral termination (Lisa Wallner Samstag, Ph.D.; Linda S. Penn, Ph.D.; Nicole M. Cain, Ph.D.)
This study examined the influence of trainee personal grief reactions (past and present), treatment outcome of the unilaterally terminated case, trainee empathy (cognitive and affective), and therapist self-efficacy, on trainee negative emotional responses to unilateral termination. This study also examined the influence of unresolved negative emotional reactions to unilateral termination on variations in therapist self-reported self-efficacy. Participants included 86 clinical and counseling psychology graduate students (20 males and 66 females) who completed the Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE; Larson et al., 1992), Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE; Reniers, Corcoran, Drake, Shryane, & Volim, 2011), Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG; Faschingbauer, Zisook, & Devaul, 1987), Counseling Outcome Measure (COM; Gelso & Johnson, 1983), and the Revised Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL-R; Zuckerman & Lubin, 1985). A participant-written termination narrative was analyzed by the Linguistic Inquiry Word Counter (LIWC; Pennebaker, Chung, Ireland, Gonzales, & Booth, 2007). While the overall results were statistically non-significant, the effect sizes among the independent and dependent variables ranged from small to medium. Of particular note was a statistically non-significant, moderate-strength relationship between trainee unresolved grief and negative emotional reactions to unilateral termination. Implications of the findings for training are discussed.
