Use of Referential Language in Short-Term Group Psychotherapy for Complicated Grief

This study investigated whether referential language predicts posttreatment general and grief symptoms as well as life satisfaction in a sample of patients receiving short-term group psychotherapy for complicated grief. One hundred ten patients from 18 treatment groups were included in the analyses. Pretreatment and posttreatment measures of the treatment outcomes were collected, and residual change scores were calculated for each outcome. Early, middle, and late group therapy sessions were transcribed, and the proportion of self references, references to the group, and references to other group members made by each participant were calculated. Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for the effect of gender and type of therapy were carried out to investigate the aim of the study. Higher use of self-referential statements predicted higher levels of general symptoms at posttreatment, whereas higher use of references to other group members predicted lower levels of general symptoms at posttreatment. Contrary to this, higher use of references to the group as a whole and higher use of references to other group members independently predicted lower posttreatment levels of grief symptoms.