Mastery in the Therapeutic Relationship: Comparing the Emotional Behavior of a Master Therapist with Professional Therapists and Its Impact on Their Clients

A quasi-experimental, between groups design was used to evaluate differences in
emotional behavior, as measured by the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF),
between professional therapists and their clients and a master therapist and his client.
This coding system also was used to determine how emotional behavior shown by a
master therapist changes over the course of six psychotherapy sessions. The research
team recorded counseling sessions at a university counseling center in the southeastern
United States and coded this video data using SPAFF in real time. Data were analyzed
quantitatively to determine whether significant differences in SPAFF codes exist between
the master therapist, professional therapists at the university counseling center, and their
respective clients. Results indicated that the master therapist showed significantly more
neutral and less negative affect than his counterparts at the university in both sessions one
and four. The master therapist’s client showed significantly more neutral affect and less negative in session one and significantly more positive affect and less negative affect in
session four.