CHANGE PROCESSES IN A CREATION OF MEANING EVENT

Creation of meaning events are in-therapy change episodes that occur w hen a patient seeks to understand the meaning of an emotional experien ce. A performance model of this task was developed in an earlier study . The present study was conducted to determine which client performanc e components distinguish successful from unsuccessful creation of mean ing episodes. Measures of referential activity were also applied to th e events and uncovered important features of the therapist interventio n that accompanied successful meaning making. The implications of thes e results for psychotherapy are discussed.