Publications by authors named "Aarno Laitila"

Introduction: Sense of control is an integral part of well-being. Studies have reported on the connection between loss of control and psychological symptoms. However, loss of sense of control has not yet been studied from the perspective of psychotherapists.

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We reflect on family therapy and its history from two points of view, as an entity that becomes understood with the help of a twofold concept of a game, and a twofold concept of liberty. Systemic family therapy has always been comprehended with the help of game theory. Its development becomes more properly understood if we keep in mind that game itself is a dualistic concept entailing both a cultural and a logico-mathematical interpretation of a game.

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Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, an experiential modality, views emotion central to therapeutic change. In this exploratory study, we examined therapists' repetition of somatically focused interventions (therapist verbalizing somatic cues, such as facial expressions) and their impact on clients' emotional experiencing in-session. We also assessed difference for withdrawing versus pursuing partners.

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In general, arousal of emotions is often felt and expressed as a somatic experience in the body. In Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), the deepening of emotional experiencing enables therapeutic change. This research explores the experiences of eight experienced EFT trainer therapists regarding their somatic experiences in their work with couples.

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Applying Dialogical Methods for Investigations of Happening of Change (DIHC), this study investigated how children who had been diagnosed with an oppositional defiant or conduct disorder participated in a collaborative post-therapy research interview and talked about their experiences of family therapy. The results showed that the children participated as dialogical partners talking in genuine, emotional, and reflective ways. Encountered as full-membership partners, the children also co-constructed meanings for their sensitive experiences.

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Major life changes may cause an autobiographical rupture and a need to work on one's narrative identity. This article introduces a new qualitative interview methodology originally developed to facilitate 10 prostate cancer patients and five spouses in the (re)creation of their life narratives in the context of a series of interventive interviews conducted over a timespan of several months. In "The Clip Approach" the interviewees' words, phrases, and metaphors are reflected back in a physical form ("the Clips") as visual artifacts that allow the interviewees to re-enter and re-consider their experience and life and re-construct their narratives concerning them.

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Few studies have explored the disclosure of child physical abuse although child sexual abuse disclosure has been widely studied and debated for years. The present study explores the characteristics of child physical abuse disclosures and compares them to previously published findings on child sexual abuse disclosure from the same data. The data consist of a representative sample of 11,364 sixth and ninth graders.

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Social welfare service and health care providers are in a key position to implement successful domestic violence (DV) interventions. However, it is known that DV intervention and prevention work is often lacking in coordination and continuity. In addition, the limited resources, hectic work pace, and changing practices negatively affect the development of successful ways to prevent and intervene in DV.

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This article reports on the added value of embodied responses identified through sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in couple therapy research. It focuses on moments of change and the timing of therapeutic interventions or therapeutic moves in a couple therapy session. The data for this single-case study comprise couple therapy process videotapes recorded in a multi-camera setting, and measurements of participants' SNS activity.

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Background and aim Physicians' attitudes predict clinical decision making and treatment choices, but the association between attitudes and behaviour is complex. Treatment guidelines for non-specific low back pain (LBP) include recommendations of early assessment of psychosocial risk factors forchronic pain, patient education and reassurance. Implication of these principles is demanding, and many patients are not referred for appropriate treatments due to a lack of systematic screening of psychosocial risk factors for chronic pain.

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Most previous studies on disclosing child sexual abuse (CSA) have either been retrospective or focused on children who already have disclosed. The present study aimed to explore the overall CSA disclosure rate and factors associated with disclosing to adults in a large population-based sample. A representative sample of 11,364 sixth and ninth graders participated in the Finnish Child Victim Survey concerning experiences of violence, including CSA.

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The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) is a 34-item self-report measure designed to monitor changes in psychiatric patients. It has been translated into 25 languages, including Finnish. This is the first psychometric exploration of Finnish CORE-OM data.

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Background: An increasing need exists for suitable measures to evaluate treatment outcome in adolescents. YP-CORE is a pan-theoretical brief questionnaire developed for this purpose, but it lacks studies in different cultures or languages.

Aims: To explore the acceptability, factor structure, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of the Finnish translation of YP-CORE.

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Background: The Sally-Anne test has been extensively used to examine children's theory of mind understanding. Many task-related factors have been suggested to impact children's performance on this test. Yet little is known about the interactional aspects of such dyadic assessment situations that might contribute to the ways in which children respond to the test questions.

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In recent years, a number of family therapists have conceptualized psychotherapy as a dialogical activity. This view presents family therapy researchers with specific challenges, the most important of which is to find ways of dealing with the dialogical qualities of the multi-actor dialogues that occur, for example, in family therapeutic conversations. In this article, we propose some preliminary ideas concerning qualitative investigations of multi-actor dialogues.

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As part of a larger research project on couple therapy for depression, this qualitative case study examines the nature of dialogue. Drawing on Bakhtinian concepts, the investigation shows how the conversation shifts from a monologue to dialogue. Among the findings are: first, the process of listening is integral to the transforming experience.

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Intervening in domestic violence in the health care and social service settings is a complex and contested issue. In this qualitative, multidisciplinary study, the barriers to but also the possibilities for health care professionals in encountering victims of violence were scrutinised. The focus was on omissions in service structure and practices.

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In the present study involving 530 patients in three specialized hospital wards, the prevalence of domestic violence, forms and recurrence of experienced violence and need of further care were elucidated. The health care personnel utilized a questionnaire to identify experiences on domestic violence and putative need of further care. According to patient self-assessment, in 11%, 32%, or 7% of the patients in the maternity department, psychiatric department and emergency department, respectively, domestic violence had a negative impact on well-being and life management.

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