The effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy for binge-eating disorder.

The intervention involved 12 weekly one hour sessions of emotion-focused therapy delivered by an experienced Clinical Psychologist with approximately 25 years of practice experience. The Clinical Psychologist had undergone Level 1, 2 and 3 training in EFT at the York University Psychology Clinic with the primary developer of the EFT approach, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Leslie Greenberg. The goal of EFT is to assist clients in processing unpleasant emotions by attending to and increasing awareness and expression of emotion; learning to tolerate and regulate experience; reflecting upon and make meaning of emotion by symbolizing emotional experience in words; and transforming maladaptive emotions by activating healthy, adaptive emotions together with their associated needs and action tendencies. The standardized treatment manual used in the current study was initially adapted from Wnuk et al. (2015) by Glisenti et al. (2018) in a series of case studies exploring the use of individual EFT to treat BED. Phase 1 of the treatment focused on promoting awareness of emotions, welcoming and accepting emotions, putting emotions into words, and identifying primary emotions. Phase 2 focused on evaluating whether the primary emotion was adaptive or maladaptive, identifying destructive emotions, accessing other adaptive emotions and needs, and transforming maladaptive emotion schemes. Six main marker guided interventions were used in individual treatment sessions in line with EFT protocol: 1. Empathic attunement and validation for vulnerability and establishing the therapeutic alliance 2. Evocative unfolding for problematic reactions 3. Experiential focusing for unclear feelings 4. Two-chair dialogues for self-critical splits 5. Two-chair enactment for self-interruptive splits and 6. Empty chair work for unfinished business. Adherence to therapy was monitored by use of a session attendance checklist. There was not an expectation that EFT techniques were to be practiced at home and there were no homework tasks associated with the treatment sessions. Glisenti. K,, Strodl, E., King, R. (2018) Emotion-focused therapy for binge-eating disorder: A review of six cases. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 25, 842-855. Wnuk, S.M., Greenberg L., & Dolhanty, J. (2015).Emotion-focused group therapy for women with symptoms of bulimia nervosa. Eating Disorders, 23, 253–261.