Body boundary changes in person-centred psychotherapy

Consistent with the assumption that the internalisation of parental and social values and behavioural expectations represents the most important influence on the formation of body boundaries (Fisher & Cleveland, 1958), and acts as a primary cause of psychological disturbances (Rogers, 1961), this study explored body boundary changes in person-centred therapy transcripts. The results demonstrated a decline in barrier imagery in High Barrier patients (N = 5) and an increase in barrier imagery in Low Barrier patients (N = 5) in the therapeutic process. An autoregressive polynomial regression analysis of barrier imagery in High and Low Barrier patients also resonated with the fourth and fifth stages of behavioural changes in the Transtheoretical Therapy Model (TTM) (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983; McConnaughy et al., 1983).