Emotion-focused therapy for generalized anxiety disorder: An exploratory study.

Abstract

Among psychological therapies for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), cognitive-behavioral therapy has a dominant position as the most studied therapy. However, some researchers have recommended that to increase treatment options and broaden choice for clients, non-cognitive-behavioral therapy models for GAD should be examined. The present study was an exploratory study, assessing pre-post outcomes and 6-month follow-up of emotion-focused therapy for GAD, supplemented by qualitative posttherapy client accounts of helpful and unhelpful aspects of therapy and changes reported since therapy started. Fourteen clients were assessed on several measures focusing on GAD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and general psychological functioning. Quantitative pre-post and 6-month follow-up data indicated large effect sizes. Qualitative data captured changes in emotional functioning, anxiety, self-acceptance, self-confidence, and self-understanding. Clients reported as helpful both relational aspects of the work and in-depth experiential tasks, although some found the experiential aspect of the work difficult. The findings suggest that there may be value in assessing emotion-focused therapy as a treatment for GAD in a randomized controlled trial. (PsycINFO Database Record

Emotion‐focused therapy for binge‐eating disorder: A review of six cases

“…Most cases in the clinical range pretreatment recovered on the BAI. These findings are consistent with previous results using EFT for anxiety (e.g., Shahar et al, ; Timulak et al, ; Watson & Greenberg, ). It was difficult to assess changes in anxiety adequately, however, given that half of the participants were in the subclinical range prior to treatment.…”

The client's perspective on (experiences of) psychotherapy: A practice friendly review

“…Virtually all the above‐mentioned studies found that clients repeatedly valued the presence of a caring and supportive relationship that is nonjudgmental and in which the client feels understood and accepted. In experiential approaches, such as emotion‐focused therapy, clients valued experiential in‐depth work, particularly chair‐work, although they sometime also found it quite difficult (Timulak et al., ).…”

“…Nilsson et al., ). Clients also found some of their own characteristics to be helpful to therapy, including their capacity to open up to the therapist, engage in therapy, and be open to learning (e.g., Nilsson et al., ; Timulak et al., ). These findings suggest that clients may differ in their capacity to use therapy in general or a specific form of therapy in particular.…”

Treating anxiety disorders by emotion‐focused psychodynamic psychotherapy (EFPP)—An integrative, transdiagnostic approach

“…Recently, Watson and Greenberg () described emotion‐focused therapy (EFT) for anxiety disorders in detail, providing a concrete portrayal of EFT techniques for GAD and social phobia (Elliott, Greenberg, Watson, Timulak, & Freire, ; MacLeod, Elliott, & Rodgers, ; O'Brien et al, ). A multiple baseline study applying EFT in social phobia (Shahar, Bar‐Kalifa, & Alon, ) and an outcome study on GAD demonstrating EFTs effectiveness have been published (Timulak et al, ) as well.…”