Abstract

Aim: In the research of psychotherapeutic process, verbal and nonverbal coordination has been associated with the alliance and the outcomes. There are evidence about coordination in body movements, facial expression, rhythm of speech, voice and speech quality. This set of results, along with others of neurosocial research, suggests that this kind of coordination may have neurophysiologic correlates that participate in regulatory processes. Thus, is initiated a research that combines contributions of the study of patient-therapist interaction with those from neuroscience concerning to neural synchrony. In this context, the present study seeks to determine the degree of association of neural activity of a patient diagnosed with depression and his therapist during the psychotherapeutic process. Method: The purpose is provide evidence about the effects of psychotherapy on the brain, and also provide data on how psychotherapy works to progress in the understanding the embodied characteristic of the therapeutic interaction. The neurodynamic activity of a patient and its therapist was measured in 25 therapy sessions with EEG. Results: The degree of frontalization and lateralization in the frequency bands Theta, Alpha and Beta in the patient and the therapist, together with the association between each participant’s brain activity are presented. Also is shown the association of aforementioned measures with the progress of the psychotherapeutic change in the patient considering indicators of big and little outcomes. Discussion: The contributions for an embodied perspective for approach to regulatory and change processes in the psychotherapeutic interaction are discussed.