Motivations to become psychotherapists: beyond the concept of the .

Motivations to become psychotherapists have long been associated with the concept of the wounded healer, which posits that practitioners entering the field of mental health often do so as a result of their own personal struggles and challenges. Early difficulties and wounds are seen as a source of healers' capacity to comprehend and promote the processes of recovery, fostering a deeper connection between the healer and the person seeking support. Nevertheless, other factors not directly linked with early adversities have been posited to have an influence on the development of motivations towards pursuing a career in the psychological field.

Trust under development: The Italian validation of the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ) for adolescents.

Introduction: In recent years, the concept of epistemic trust has emerged as a critical factor in understanding psychopathology, particularly within the context of personality disorders. A self-report instrument, the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ), has demonstrated its validity among English and Italian adult populations. However, extending its applicability to adolescents is essential for comprehending the role of epistemic trust in the development of mental disorders.

Adverse childhood experiences and psychological maladjustment in adolescence: The protective role of epistemic trust, mentalized affectivity, and reflective functioning.

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are psychosocial factors acknowledged as significant contributors to health consequences later in adolescence, including psychological maladjustment. The research suggests that, at a transdiagnostic and transtheoretical level, working on restoring epistemic trust (ET), mentalized affectivity (MA), and reflective functioning (RF) in adolescents with ACEs assumes a central role in the therapeutic process. However, there are still few studies that attempted to investigate the specific role of these sociocognitive factors in the detrimental positive association between levels of experienced ACEs during childhood and psychological maladjustment in nonclinical adolescents.

Patient personality and therapist responses in the psychotherapy of adolescents with depressive disorders: toward the - third edition.

Depressive disorders in adolescence pose unique challenges for assessment and treatment, particularly due to their high comorbidity with various personality disorders. Moreover, young depressed patients may elicit very intense and difficult-to-manage emotional responses in therapists (in this context, countertransference). This study aimed at empirically identifying specific personality disorders (or subtypes) among adolescents with depressive pathology and exploring distinct countertransference patterns emerging in their psychotherapy: 100 adolescents (58 with depressive disorders; 42 with other clinical conditions) were assessed by their respective clinicians (n=100) using the psychodiagnostic chart-adolescent of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM) - second edition, and the therapist response questionnaire for adolescents.

The catcher in the mind: validation of the brief-mentalized affectivity scale for adolescents in the Italian population.

The concept of mentalized affectivity (MA) encompasses the dimensions of identifying, processing, and expressing emotions and describes the process of making sense of and reevaluating one's affects in light of autobiographical memory. This construct was developed within the theoretical framework of mentalization and, due to its interpersonal nature, added further complexity to the emotion regulation construct. This research aimed to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Brief-Mentalized Affectivity Scale for adolescents (B-MAS-A) on an Italian sample of young people (aged 13-19 years).

Cooperation within the therapeutic relationship improves metacognitive functioning: preliminary findings.

Both clinical observations and empirical data suggest that metacognitive functioning is a factor strongly associated with a good psychotherapeutic outcome. It has been suggested that some interpersonal social motivations (i.e.

Heterotypic and homotypic continuity in psychopathology: a narrative review.

Psychopathology is a process: it unfolds over time and involves several different factors. To extend our knowledge of such process, it is vital to understand the trajectories that lead to developing and maintaining a specific disorder. The construct of continuity appears very useful to this aim.

Unpacking trust: The Italian validation of the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ).

The construct of epistemic trust has received much consideration in recent psychological literature, even though mainly from a theoretical perspective. The overall aim of this study was to validate the first self-report measure of epistemic trust-the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ)-in an Italian sample. Our primary goal was to test the factorial validity of the instrument, also exploring the influence of age, gender, and level of education on epistemic trust (Study 1, n = 843).

Personality, Defenses, Mentalization, and Epistemic Trust Related to Pandemic Containment Strategies and the COVID-19 Vaccine: A Sequential Mediation Model.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably influenced all domains of people's lives worldwide, determining a high increase in overall psychological distress and several clinical conditions. The study attempted to shed light on the relationship between the strategies adopted to manage the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy, and distinct features of personality and mental functioning.

Methods: The sample consisted of 367 Italian individuals (68.

Nightmare Rescripting: Using Imagery Techniques to Treat Sleep Disturbances in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

Besides affecting 8% of the general population, nightmares are one of the most frequent symptoms of traumatized individuals. This can be a significant factor in the treatment of post-traumatic disorders; indeed, several studies demonstrated its strong predictive and prognostic value. Sleep disorders, nightmares in particular, could be very distressing for individuals and need targeted interventions, especially if they are associated with a PTSD diagnosis.

The Role of Complex Trauma and Attachment Patterns in Intimate Partner Violence.

Objective: Even if the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and intimate partner violence (IPV) has already been established, there are no sufficient studies examining the relationships between these factors and attachment representations, specifically attachment disorganization. Thus, this study aimed to explore, in a sample of women who experienced IPV (a) the presence of interpersonal adversities during childhood, and (b) attachment representations, with a particular focus on disorganization.

Methods: Women's representations of attachment experiences were investigated through the Adult Attachment Interview, while the presence of various forms of interpersonal adversities during childhood was assessed using the Complex Trauma Questionnaire.

Mentalized affectivity in a nutshell: Validation of the Italian version of the Brief-Mentalized Affectivity Scale (B-MAS).

The term "mentalized affectivity" describes the ability to reflect on, process, modulate and express emotions through the prism of autobiographical memory. It represents a bridge concept that integrates previous contributions on emotion regulation and mentalization, offering a quite unique perspective on affective and reflective functioning. The overall aim of this study was to validate the Brief-Mentalized Affectivity Scale (B-MAS), a 12-items self-report instrument, on the Italian population.

Effects of COVID-19 Epidemic Lockdown on Postpartum Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Italian Mothers.

The extraordinary health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic represents a new challenge for mental health researchers and clinical practitioners. The related containment measures may be a risk factor for psychological distress and mood disorders, especially in at-risk populations. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on postpartum depressive symptoms in mothers with children below 1 year of age.

Giovanni Liotti (1945-2018): the of research in attachment and psychotherapy.

This article is a portrait of Giovanni Liotti, eminent psychiatrist and scholar of attachment theory who recently passed away. In this paper, we recall some fundamental steps in his professional and personal life: Liotti's encounter and friendship with Bowlby; Liotti's construction of a bridge between cognitive therapy (of which he was a pioneer) and attachment theory; the interest in attachment disorganization as a precursor of dissociative symptoms and syndromes in adolescence and adulthood; his appreciation for Janet's ideas (which Liotti helped bring back to the attention of clinicians and researchers) and his contribution in highlighting the role of traumatic experiences in the development of psychopathology; Liotti's attempt to go beyond attachment theory and formulate for the clinical context an evolutionary theory of motivation, which analyzes different interpersonal motivational systems beyond attachment and caregiving, an emphasizes in particular the importance of cooperation in psychotherapy.

The Role of Attachment Trauma and Disintegrative Pathogenic Processes in the Traumatic-Dissociative Dimension.

Epidemiological, clinical, and neurobiological studies of the last 30 years suggest that traumatic attachments during the early years of life are associated to specific psychopathological vulnerabilities based on dissociative pathogenic processes. It has been observed that the dissociative pathogenic processes caused by these traumatic attachments either may contribute to the genesis of well-defined mental disorders (e.g.