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This study explored the importance of early and late emotional processing to change in depressive and general symptomology, self-esteem, and interpersonal problems for 34 clients who received 16-20 sessions of experiential treatment for depression. The independent contribution to outcome of the early working alliance was also explored. Early and late emotional processing predicted reductions in reported symptoms and gains in self-esteem. More important, emotional-processing skill significantly improved during treatment. Hierarchical regression models demonstrated that late emotional processing both mediated the relationship between clients' early emotional processing capacity and outcome and was the sole emotional-processing variable that independently predicted improvement. After controlling for emotional processing, the working alliance added an independent contribution to explaining improvement in reported symptomology only.

Does it work in the real world? The effectiveness of treatments for psychological problems in children and adolescent.

The relationship between theme-related depth of experiencing (EXP) and outcome was explored in experiential therapy with depressed clients. The study sought to investigate whether depth of EXP predicts outcome, whether change in depth of EXP over therapy predicts outcome, and how these factors compare with the therapeutic alliance as predictors of outcome. The sample consisted of 35 clients, each of whom received 16 to 20 weeks of therapy. Themes that had emerged across therapy were identified. Depth of EXP was measured in relation to themes in one early session and in three sessions sampled from blocks across the last half of therapy. Analyses revealed that EXP on core themes in the last half of therapy was a significant predictor of reduced symptom distress and increased self-esteem. EXP did not correlate significantly with changes on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. EXP on core themes also accounted for outcome variance over and above that accounted for by early EXP and alliance.

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