ArticleFrontiers in psychology2016
Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Review and an Integrative Framework for the Therapeutic Alliance.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 119 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
119 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 430 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychodynamic treatments taking an embodied perspective and their effect on depressive symptomatology: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- The Self and Its Intersubjective Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyPooled it
- Oxytocin increases physiological linkage during group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder: a randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Inter-brain coupling tracks emotional co-regulation.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Movement-Anchored Emotional Memory: An Embodied Neuropsychological Framework.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Heart rate synchrony as an objective biomarker in psychotherapy: a wearable-based pilot study.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Synchrony Vision: An RGB-D Sensor-Based System for Real-Time Monitoring and Event-Level Analysis of Interpersonal Motion Synchrony.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A qualitative pilot study on how young adolescents perceive an arts-based existential intervention for grappling with the subject of death.Discover mental health · 2026Article
- Interpersonal Synchronization of Autonomic Physiology via Mere Visual Contact.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Meaning-Events: The Sensorimotor Foundation for Lifespan Development of Meaning.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- I Feel You … or Do I? An Investigation of Therapist Presence and Partner Effects Via Physiological Synchrony in Couple Therapy.Journal of marital and family therapy · 2026Article
- Predictors of the Effectiveness of Psychedelics in Treating Depression-A Scoping Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Chronic Pain and Opioids in the Elderly: Treating the Brain, Not Just the Body.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- Remote collaboration in virtual reality induces physiological synchrony comparable to face-to-face interaction.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Integrating autonomic and affective pathways in borderline personality disorder: the triangle therapy hypothesis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- EEG signature in psychiatrist's subjective experience: a pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The occurrence of a particular state is a predictor of successful travel consultation.PloS one · 2026Article
- Mother-child dyadic interactions shape the developing social brain and Theory of Mind in young children.eLife · 2025Article
- Deciding When to Align: Computational and Neural Mechanisms of Goal-Directed Social Alignment.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Dynamic and dyadic relationships between facial behavior, working alliance, and treatment outcomes during depression therapy.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2025Article
59 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During psychotherapy, patient and therapist tend to spontaneously synchronize their vocal pitch, bodily movements, and even their physiological processes. In the present article, we consider how this pervasive phenomenon may shed new light on the therapeutic relationship- or alliance- and its role within psychotherapy. We first review clinical research on the alliance and the multidisciplinary area of interpersonal synchrony. We then integrate both literatures in the Interpersonal Synchrony (In-Sync) model of psychotherapy. According to the model, the alliance is grounded in the coupling of patient and therapist's brains. Because brains do not interact directly, movement synchrony may help to establish inter-brain coupling. Inter-brain coupling may provide patient and therapist with access to another's internal states, which facilitates common understanding and emotional sharing. Over time, these interpersonal exchanges may improve patients' emotion-regulatory capacities and related therapeutic outcomes. We discuss the empirical assessment of interpersonal synchrony and review preliminary research on synchrony in psychotherapy. Finally, we summarize our main conclusions and consider the broader implications of viewing psychotherapy as the product of two interacting brains.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.