Nonverbal relationship regulation in psychotherapy

Starting from an understanding of psychological disorders as disorders in relationship regulation as well as the assumption that the therapeutic relationship can be conceptualized as a specific operating variable, a synopsis of results from psychotherapy process emphasizing the role of affective processes for establishing, maintaining, and regulating relationships is presented. Affects are understood as phenomena that are substantially communicated through nonverbal, particularly facial-affective, behavior and thus serve important relationship regulating functions. This article presents a discussion of facial-affective behavior of patients with different psychological disorders, characteristics of affective communication in psychotherapies, and existing empirical results.