ProMets Network

Mentalizing and epistemic trust as resilience factors in the stress generation model

We examine the role of mentalizing and epistemic trust in exposure to dependent stressors – stressful events to which a person partly contributes through their own behavior, emotional reactions, or ways of relating to others – and their association with more severe current psychopathological symptoms.

The project aims to identify mechanisms that maintain psychopathological symptoms and contribute to treatment resistance, and that may also become realistic targets for therapeutic intervention.

Longitudinal study with three assessments two months apart; T1 during psychiatric hospitalization.

Research team: Monika O. Jańczak, Dominika Górska, Marianna Izbaner, Tobias Nolte, Peter Fonagy, Chloe Campbell, Julia Griem, Piotr Podwalski

Patient Experiences in TFP

A qualitative study of subjective perspectives and mechanisms of change

What changes as a result of TFP? How do patients experience receiving a personality disorder diagnosis? How are crises in TFP experienced? How do patients experience dropping out of therapy?

Qualitative study: in-depth interviews and reflexive thematic analysis.

Research team: Monika O. Jańczak, Emilia Soroko, Marianna Izbaner

What Protects Psychotherapists?

Mentalization, attachment, and professional loneliness as factors in psychotherapists’ well-being

We examine why some psychotherapists cope better than others with the emotional demands of clinical work.

The project aims to determine how professional loneliness and supervisory support affect psychotherapists’ well-being and may protect against the negative effects of therapeutic work.

Mixed-methods study combining questionnaires and interviews with psychotherapists.

Research team: Wiktoria Burzyńska, Michał Podgórski, Victor Walczak, Iga Kaczmarek

GARDEN Study

Changes in personality functioning, mentalizing, and psychopathological symptoms during integrative psychotherapy

We examine trajectories of change in personality functioning, mentalizing, and psychopathological symptoms during 40 weeks of routine integrative psychotherapy.

The project aims to determine whether improved mentalizing is a mechanism of therapeutic change and how personality functioning affects the course and outcomes of psychotherapy.

Naturalistic longitudinal study with three assessments (beginning, middle, and end of therapy).

Research team: Monika O. Jańczak, Sylwia Kita, Tobias Nolte

POINT Study

Effectiveness of transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) for personality disorders

We examine the effectiveness of TFP compared with other forms of psychotherapy delivered in private practice to people with personality disorders.

It is the first study in Poland of the effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, covering changes in personality organization and psychopathological symptoms as well as sexual functioning, narrative identity, and representations of self and others.

Pragmatic comparative study (TFP vs. bona fide psychotherapy) in private practice settings; assessment after 12 months of therapy and long-term follow-up up to 60 months.

Research team: Agnieszka Izdebska, Monika O. Jańczak, Jerzy Bandel, Michał Sieński, Marta Szymańska-Pytlińska, Joanna Agata Franczyk, Magdalena Wojciechowska, Daniel Zając; collaborators: Emilia Soroko, Artur Daren, Stephan Doering