Computerized linguistic analysis: Which associations correspond with students’ symptom reduction in a brief psychodynamic intervention?

This study explored some of the mechanisms that can be helpful in psychotherapy. It investigated the usefulness of a university counselling intervention by evaluating changes in psychological symptomatology before and after the therapeutic intervention and in the linguistic measures applied to clinical reports of the first and last sessions. The sample consisted of 88 university students. Results showed a significant reduction in patients’ symptomatology in all the dimensions investigated. Moreover, some significant changes in linguistic measures applied to clinical reports emerged, such as an increase in the reflection/reorganization process.