Abstract
The role of the counselor’s experience in building an alliance with the clients remains controversial. Recently, the expanding nascent studies on interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) on human subjects have hinted at the possible neural substrates underlying the relationship qualities between the counselor-client dyads. Our study assessed the clients’ self-report working alliance (WA) as well as simultaneously measured IBS by fNIRS in 14 experienced versus 16 novice counselor-client dyads during the first integrative-orientation psychological counseling session. We observed that synchronous brain activity patterns were elicited from the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) across counselor-client dyads. Furthermore, such IBS, together with alliance quality, was especially evident when counselors had more psychotherapy experience. Time-lagged counselor-client brain synchronization might co-vary with the alliance (goal component) when the client’s brain activity preceded that of the counselor. These findings favor the notion that the IBS between counselor-client associated with the WA is an experience-dependent phenomenon, suggesting that a potential adaptive mechanism is embedded in psychological counseling.
- counselor-client brain synchronization
- experienced psychotherapists
- fNIRS hyperscanning
- psychotherapy experience
- temporo-parietal junction
- working alliance
Footnotes
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 31900767 (to Y.Z.) and 31872783 (to Y.H.), the Ministry of Education in China (MOE) Project of Humanities and Social Science Grant 17YJC190031 (to Y.Z.), and the Peak Discipline Construction Project of Education at East China Normal University (Y.H.).
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