Emotion-focused perspective on breast cancer patients’ experiences of comorbid anxiety and depression: a qualitative case analysis of three clients’ in-session presentations

Theoretically informed qualitative psychotherapy research: A primer

“…For example, it demonstrated that clients were avoidant of idiosyncratic triggers and painful feelings embedded in their personal history narrative, rather than generalised as traditionally understood by the label of generalised anxiety. This successful application led to the extension of the case conceptualisation model to a psycho‐oncology setting (Hissa et al, 2020), where we utilised the case conceptualisation model as the theoretical framework for interpreting the in‐session presentations of breast cancer patients with comorbid anxiety and depression. The model formed the explicit basis for examining, unfolding and outlining the emotional experiences of clients with a diagnosis of breast cancer and the interplays with their emotional vulnerabilities.…”

“…Theoretically informed QPR is, in a similar way, structured, except that the domains of investigation are explicitly informed by theory. In our study (Hissa et al, 2020), the declared EFT theoretical framework informed data analysis, principally how we organised the data/delineated domains (i.e. triggers of emotional pain, global distress, problematic self‐treatment, behavioural and emotional avoidance, core pain, unmet needs); in this way, our domains of enquiry corresponded to the EFT case conceptualisation headings.…”

“…Our research group has led numerous theoretically informed qualitative studies (e.g. Dillon, Timulak, & Greenberg, ; Hissa, Connolly, Hession, & Timulak, 2020; McNally, Timulak, & Greenberg, ; O'Brien et al, ), investigating elements of the emotional transformation model as conceptualised within emotion‐focused therapy (EFT). These studies followed from the work of Pascual‐Leone and Greenberg (), Pascual‐Leone () and Pascual‐Leone (), who, utilising task analysis, investigated the process of emotional transformation in ‘good’/therapeutically productive sessions (vs. unproductive therapy sessions) giving rise to a model of emotional transformation with moment‐by‐moment description of productive emotional processing.…”

“…In Hissa et al (2020), the EFT model of emotional transformation informed both how we clustered and how we interpreted findings; that is, the model informed data structure, but within that data structure, it also informed the evolving categories. For example, Core Pain (primary painful emotions), proposed by Timulak and Pascual‐Leone () to cluster around loneliness, shame and fear/ terror, was, in our study, unique to the oncology context; we saw that fear captured the existential terror associated with cancer and the cancer‐related trauma, resulting in fear of illness, of recurrence and of death.…”

The Effects of Tai Chi Exercise on Physiological and Psychosocial Well-Being During Adjuvant Chemotherapy Among Breast Cancer Patients

“…So, these benefits would be enhanced were Tai Chi to be applied earlier during the process of cancer therapy (Ding et al, 2020). patient education and support throughout the process of BC management is needed to improve the overall quality of patient care through an integrative treatment program, consisting of Tai Chi exercise with walking may offer a reasonable and novel therapeutic approach (Hissa et al, 2020).…”