Psychotherapeutic change process

Throughout the years, psychotherapy research has tried to understand how psychological change occurs and which mechanisms are involved in this process, but there are still many questions with no answer about how psychotherapy works. The assimilation model proposes that therapeutic change occurs trough the gradual assimilation of problematic experiences/voices in the self. Several empirical studies have found an association between assimilation and good outcome. However, more empirical evidence is needed to validate this assumption.

This project aims to respond to this need by analyzing:

1) whether there is a predictive relationship between assimilation and clinical symptomatology and the direction of this prediction;
2) What is the relationship between assimilation and emotional valence;
3) What is the role of instability in assimilation in the decrease of clinical symptoms and in the assimilation progression throughout therapy.