Facing Change: Using Automated Facial Expression Analysis to Examine Emotional Flexibility in the Treatment of Depression.

Objective: Depression involves deficits in emotional flexibility. To date, the varied and dynamic nature of emotional processes during therapy has mostly been measured at discrete time intervals using clients' subjective reports. Because emotions tend to fluctuate and change from moment to moment, the understanding of emotional processes in the treatment of depression depends to a great extent on the existence of sensitive, continuous, and objectively codified measures of emotional expression.

Clients' emotional experience as a dynamic context for client-therapist physiological synchrony.

Objective: Client-therapist physiological synchrony has recently attracted significant empirical attention. Recent theoretical accounts propose that physiological linkages should not be considered a stable dyadic virtue but rather a dynamic process that depends on the situational context in which they transpire. The present study adopted a "momentary" (vs.

Client-therapist temporal congruence in perceiving immediate therapist self-disclosure and its association with treatment outcome.

Immediate therapist self-disclosure (Im-TSD) can be a powerful intervention. When engaged in judiciously, it can provide clients with a unique opportunity to explore their interpersonal relationship in real time. Relational theories suggest that for Im-TSD to be effective, both client and therapist must have temporally congruent perceptions of its occurrence.