Table 2.

Therapeutic interventions associated with crying: summary table.

Main category	Subscale	Description
Trigger of crying	Trigger of crying	Depicts the intensity of the intervention immediately before crying.
Responses to crying: addressing (Emotions are addressed and possibly intensified.)	Perceiving the here-and-now quality of the crying Exploring emotions Contextualizing the crying in an actively therapeutic manner	Emotions are perceived, contained, mirrored. Emotions, desires, thoughts, conflicts are explored. Emotions are contextualized with respect to biography, diagnosis, patterns.
Responses to crying: giving space (Guiding of the situation is left to the patient.)	Pause Letting Narrate	An intentional pause emerges. Patient has the (almost) exclusive speaking part.
Responses to crying: neutralizing (Emotions and tension are downregulated.)	Providing support in an actively therapeutic manner Exploring facts Initiating a change of topic/ending the session	Supportive interventions such as proposing solutions, reframing, normalizing. The triggering topic is explored on a factual level. Crying is ignored, a new topic is introduced, the session is ended.