AUTHOR=Braga Cátia , Ribeiro António P. , Sousa Inês , Gonçalves Miguel M. TITLE=Ambivalence Predicts Symptomatology in Cognitive-Behavioral and Narrative Therapies: An Exploratory Study JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01244 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01244 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

Background: The identification of poor outcome predictors is essential if we are to prevent therapeutic failure. Ambivalence – defined as a conflictual relationship between two positions of the self: one favoring change and another one favoring problematic stability – has been consistently associated with poor outcomes. However, the precise relationship between ambivalence and clients’ symptomatology remains unclear.

Objective: This study aims at assessing ambivalence’s power to predict symptomatology, using a longitudinal design.

Methods: The complete 305 sessions of 16 narrative and cognitive-behavioral cases have been analyzed with the Ambivalence Coding System and outcome measures have been used for each session.

Results: Ambivalence emerged as a significant predictor of subsequent symptomatology suggesting that ambivalence is not only related to treatment outcomes, but that it represents a strong predictor of subsequent symptomatology.

Discussion: The implications of ambivalence’s power to predict outcomes for research and clinical practice are discussed.