“That chair work thing was great”: a pilot study of group-based emotion-focused therapy for anxiety and depression

Abstract

Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based treatment for depression and it has shown promise for the treatment of anxiety. Only one other published study has examined EFT in a group therapy setting. Using mixed-methods, the current study explored the feasibility and outcomes of an EFT group with adults referred for anxiety and depression. Pre-, post-, and 12-month follow-up measures of depression, anxiety, and difficulties in emotion regulation were administered in addition to a semi-structured interview at one-year follow-up. The analysis of individual interviews suggested improvements in various areas of functioning and quantitative data revealed a significant decrease in emotion regulation difficulties. The results of this study provide preliminary support for the application and further study of group-based EFT for clinical presentations of anxiety and depression. Emotionsfokussierte Therapie (EFT) ist eine evidenz-basierte Behandlung gegen Depression und bei der Behandlung von Angst ist sie vielversprechend. Nur eine weitere publizierte Studie untersuchte EFT bislang in einem gruppentherapeutischen Setting (Pascual-Leone, Bierman, Arnold & Stasiak, 2011). Mit einem Methoden-Mix untersuchte die vorliegende Studie die Machbarkeit und den Outcome für eine EFTGruppe von Erwachsenen mit Angst-und Depressions-Diagnosen. Pre-, Post-, und 12-Monate Follow-up-Messungen von Depression, Angst und Schwierigkeiten in der Emotionsregulation wurden eingesetzt. Dazu kam ein halb-strukturiertes Interview in einem 1-Jahres-Follow-up. Die Analyse individueller Interviews zeigte Verbesserungen in verschiedenen Bereichen an und die quantitativen Daten zeigten eine statistisch signifikante Abnahme im Bereich der Emotionsregulationsprobleme. Die Resultate dieser Studie liefern erste Unterstützung für die Anwendung und weitere Erforschung von gruppenbasierter EFT bei klinischen Fällen von Angst und Depression."El trabajo con la silla fue buenísimo": un estudio piloto de terapia grupal enfocada en la emoción para la ansiedad y depresión La terapia enfocada en la emoción (EFT, siglas en ingles) es un tratamiento basado en la evidencia para la depresión y ha mostrado resultados promisorios para el tratamiento de la ansiedad. Solo hay otro estudio publicado que ha examinado la terapia centrada *Corresponding author.

Emotion-Focused Group Therapy for Women With Symptoms of Bulimia Nervosa

“…The reductions in binge episode frequency are consistent with the results from research on other group treatments for eating disorders (Jacobi, Dahme, & Dittman, 2002;Riess, 2002;Shiina, Nakazato, Mitsumori, & Koizumi, 2005). Our findings are consistent with those of Lafrance Robinson et al (2014) in showing that a group EFT approach may result in successful client outcomes.…”

“…The theoretical foundations of EFT are well-developed (Greenberg & Watson, 2005) and outcome research has found EFT to be helpful in treating problems including depression (Greenberg & Watson 1998). In research EFT is typically delivered in 16 individual weekly sessions and a recently published study found that a group approach for individuals with anxiety and depression was effective (Lafrance Robinson, McCague, & Whissell, 2014).…”

Mixed methods in psychotherapy research: A review of method(ology) integration in psychotherapy science

“…They indicated that their design was "the most suitable and comprehensive approach to ascertain the effectiveness of the interventions whilst also gathering participants' views on the intervention" (Lopez et al, 2014, p. 412). Similar findings emerged in other studies where qualitative data were indicated to have deepened the findings by going beyond statistical testing (e.g., Finucane & Mercer, 2006;Grocke et al, 2014;Herrera-Mercadal et al, 2015;Lucock et al, 2015;Lucre & Corten, 2013;Robinson, McCague, & Whissell, 2014;Werbart et al, 2015). This reinforces the value derived from speaking with participants to better conceive the fruitfulness of interventions.…”

“…Perhaps associated with the ability to embrace clients' perceptions of treatment, the use of mixed methods in group psychotherapy research became clear (frequency = 32.26%; n = 10). Several studies used mixed methods designs to study, often among small samples for pilot or exploratory purposes, group interventions (Bensimon, Amir, & Wolf, 2012;Carr et al, 2011;Down et al, 2011;Grocke et al, 2014;Heriot-Maitland, Vidal, Ball, & Irons, 2014;Lucre & Corten, 2013;Robinson et al, 2014;Swank & Shin, 2015;Tasca et al, 2011). Using mixed methods for smaller sample, exploratory group research allowed these researchers to assess "outcome efficacy and [use] qualitative methods in investigating therapeutic processes" (Down et al, 2011, p. 49).…”

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

“…EFT has been successful in enhancing emotional processing and regulation in other disorders, including depression (e.g., Goldman, Greenberg, & Angus, 2006;Greenberg & Watson, 2005;Robinson, McCague, & Whissell, 2014) and complex trauma (e.g., Holowaty & Paivio, 2012;Paivio & Nieuwenhuis, 2001;Paivio & Pascual-Leone, 2010). Recently, evidence has also been mounting for the efficacy of EFT in the treatment of anxiety disorders (Shahar, Bar-Kalifa, & Alon, 2017;Timulak et al, 2017;Watson & Greenberg, 2017).…”