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In this study, 34 clients with unresolved feelings related to a significant other were randomly assigned to either experiential therapy using a Gestalt empty-chair dialogue intervention or an attention-placebo condition. The latter was a psychoeducational group offering information about "unfinished business." Treatment outcomes were evaluated before and after the treatment period in each condition and at 4 months and 1 year after the experiential therapy. Outcome instruments targeted general symptomotology, interpersonal distress, target complaints, unfinished business resolution, and perceptions of self and other in the unfinished business relationship. Results indicated that experiential therapy achieved clinically meaningful gains for most clients and significantly greater improvement than the psychoeducational group on all outcome measures. Treatment gains for the experiential therapy group were maintained at follow-up.

This study examined the effectiveness of Emotion Focused Therapy with 32 adult survivors (EFT-AS) of childhood abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual). EFT-AS is a 20-week individual psychotherapy based on current emotion theory and experiential therapy theory and research. The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which participants, who met screening criteria, were assigned to therapy or a variably delayed therapy condition. Clients receiving EFT-AS achieved significant improvements in multiple domains of disturbance. Clients in the delayed treatment condition showed minimal improvements over the wait interval but afterEFT-AS showed significant improvements comparable to the immediate therapy group. These effects were maintained at 9 months (on average) follow-up.