About this Research Topic
The patient's change is every Psychotherapist main goal and one of the most discussed topics in psychotherapy research.
Do we know exactly what this entails?
Which are the forces impeding and fostering it?
This Research Topic is interested in any study focused on the dynamics of change in psychotherapy and, particularly, on its precursors.
Change, in physics, is often called phase transition and is most commonly used to describe transitions between solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter.
A phase of a thermodynamic system and the states of matter have uniform physical properties. During a phase transition of a given medium, certain properties of the medium change, often discontinuously, as a result of the change of some external condition, such as temperature, pressure, or others. For example, a liquid may become gas upon heating to the boiling point, resulting in an abrupt change in volume.
Phase transitions commonly occur in nature, they are adopted today in many technologies and are generally described by a change in few main parameters of the system at hand: order, variability, synchronization, and complexity.
Psychotherapy may be conceived as a human dynamic system evolving towards more functional states or configurations through different kind of transitions.
To shed light on the dynamics of change in Psychotherapy, we welcome both qualitative and quantitative contributions.
Studies on the dynamics of change in Psychotherapy and its precursors may address this question developing the topic from a neural/physiological as well as adopting a clinical/psychological perspective.
Guest Editors would like to express their profound gratitude to Dr. De Smet for her valuable work in initiating this Research Topic and contributing actively to it.
Guest Editor Dr. Schiepek is also director of the Center for Complex systems which provides the Synergetic Navigation System for Research and practice applications. All other Guest Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject
Do we know exactly what this entails?
Which are the forces impeding and fostering it?
This Research Topic is interested in any study focused on the dynamics of change in psychotherapy and, particularly, on its precursors.
Change, in physics, is often called phase transition and is most commonly used to describe transitions between solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter.
A phase of a thermodynamic system and the states of matter have uniform physical properties. During a phase transition of a given medium, certain properties of the medium change, often discontinuously, as a result of the change of some external condition, such as temperature, pressure, or others. For example, a liquid may become gas upon heating to the boiling point, resulting in an abrupt change in volume.
Phase transitions commonly occur in nature, they are adopted today in many technologies and are generally described by a change in few main parameters of the system at hand: order, variability, synchronization, and complexity.
Psychotherapy may be conceived as a human dynamic system evolving towards more functional states or configurations through different kind of transitions.
To shed light on the dynamics of change in Psychotherapy, we welcome both qualitative and quantitative contributions.
Studies on the dynamics of change in Psychotherapy and its precursors may address this question developing the topic from a neural/physiological as well as adopting a clinical/psychological perspective.
Guest Editors would like to express their profound gratitude to Dr. De Smet for her valuable work in initiating this Research Topic and contributing actively to it.
Guest Editor Dr. Schiepek is also director of the Center for Complex systems which provides the Synergetic Navigation System for Research and practice applications. All other Guest Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject
Keywords: complex systems, nonlinear dynamics, change processes, time series analysis, psychotherapy
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
