The therapeutic change through the assimilation model : it’s application in the linguistic therapy of evaluation

Abstract

The assimilation model describes therapeutic change through APES (Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale) trying to reconcile the study of change through a pre-/post-test comparison with studying moment-by-moment change. Two processes of assimilation are described and compared from two clinical cases treated with the linguistic therapy of evaluation. A sample of 2,211 passages was coded with the APES. The good outcome case showed, at the end of treatment and at different moments of the therapeutic process, high stages of assimilation in its four problematic experiences. The poor outcome case showed, at the end of treatment and at different moments of the therapeutic process, the assimilation of some of its five problematic experiences. In both cases, the assimilation pattern was sawtoothed, with jumps and returns between APES stages.