ERCE MATEJA RESEARCH

– Association of Bonding Psychotherapists of Slovenia (ZBPS)
– Responsible person of the institution: Bogdan Polajner, PhD
– Coordinator of the research: Mateja Erce, dipl. Biopsychologist, specialist of BP

Abstract: Stress is a current social and health problem because it affects humans adversely on a wide range of problems, disorders, and illnesses, as well as affects interpersonal relationships. Therefore, we wondered in the master’s thesis whether, by administering BPT, we would successfully and statistically significantly reduce cortisol levels as an indicator of stress.

By the means of saliva withdrawal, using questionnaires (CORE-OM questionnaire, PSS-14 – The Perceived Stress Scale, Relational Needs Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, Relationship Questionnaire and WHO-5) we wanted to determine if there are changes in interpersonal relationships, attachment, and compassion for ourselves in 16 BPT workshop users and 12 control group participants.
We also wanted to determine whether there is a difference in the morning cortisol levels of persons who have been abused or neglected as children, which we were unable to verify due to the lack of such participants.
The results showed that our hypotheses could not be confirmed, as there are no significant differences in the studied variables between the experimental and control group. The reason is probably the small sample size and missing data. Due to the lack of data, we were not able to verify the effect of BPT on cortisol levels, but in morning cortisol levels we found improvement trends.
There were also improvement trends when it comes to changes in secure attachment style and self-compassion, decreasing in the expressiveness of symptoms and decreasing in well-being. Reliable conclusions, therefore, require continued studies on a larger sample and longer application periods of Bonding Psychotherapy workshops.