This study investigates the relationships between therapists' use of discourse particles and therapist empathy. Discourse particles, commonly found in non-English languages, are verbal elements that constitute metacommunication by encoding speakers' emotions and attitudes, which are typically expressed by nonverbal behaviors (e.g., intonation, tone, facial expression, nodding). We hypothesize an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between therapists' use of discourse particles and therapist empathy, given the notion that an optimal level of therapists' emotion in psychotherapy can facilitate clients' inner experiencing and self-expression. Four psychotherapy sessions each from 39 therapist-client dyads were analyzed. After each session, therapist empathy was rated by trained observers using the Therapist Empathy Scale (TES) and by clients using the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (BLRI). Multilevel modeling shows that both the person-level negative quadratic term and positive linear term for therapists' usage of discourse particles are significant in predicting mean TES with large effect sizes. The same predictors do not yield significant results in predicting mean BLRI but they trend in similar directions of associations with medium effect sizes. Our results suggest the optimal usage of discourse particles by therapists is around 20.3% (out of all utterances). The nonsignificant results in BLRI may be attributed to the relatively small sample size of our data and the noncommunication orientation of the client-rated measure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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心理治疗中治疗师使用话语粒子与治疗师同理心之间的曲线关联。

本研究调查了治疗师使用话语粒子与治疗师共情之间的关系。话语助词常见于非英语语言中，是通过编码说话者的情绪和态度而构成元交流的言语元素，这些情绪和态度通常通过非言语行为（例如语调、语气、面部表情、点头）来表达。考虑到心理治疗中治疗师情绪的最佳水平可以促进来访者的内在体验和自我表达，我们假设治疗师使用话语粒子与治疗师共情之间存在倒U形曲线关系。对 39 名治疗师与来访者的四次心理治疗疗程进行了分析。每次治疗结束后，训练有素的观察员使用治疗师同理心量表（T​​ES）和客户使用巴雷特-伦纳德关系量表（BLRI）对治疗师的同理心进行评估。多级建模表明，治疗师使用话语粒子的人级负二次项和正线性项对于预测具有较大效应量的平均 TES 具有重要意义。相同的预测因子在预测平均 BLRI 方面不会产生显着结果，但它们与中等效应大小的关联方向相似。我们的结果表明，治疗师对话语助词的最佳使用率约为 20.3%（在所有话语中）。BLRI 中的不显着结果可能归因于我们的数据样本量相对较小以及客户评价指标的非沟通倾向。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。