Emotion-focused therapy for fear of cancer recurrence: A hospital-based exploratory outcome study.

Abstract

Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a main concern for most cancer survivors and can bring significant distress impacting well-being and quality of life. Although other psychological approaches have been developed for dysfunctional FCR, based on previous research, emotion-focused therapy (EFT) might also be a relevant intervention for treating this concern. A total of 17 adults with a cancer diagnosis and presenting FCR among other cancer-related concerns were offered EFT, delivered in a regular practice in a cancer hospital (mean number of sessions = 13, range: 4-25). Outcome and process instruments were used to assess general psychological distress, client-generated outcome items, and helpful and hindering aspects of therapy. Significant pre-post outcome differences were found, both for client-generated (d = 1.53) and standard (d = .88) measures, with no cases of reliable deterioration, although most patients did not show clinically significant change by the end of therapy. The most frequent helpful insession processes were client verbal expression of experience and work on parts of self; the most common immediate session impacts were positive feelings and self-realizations. EFT may be a useful alternative treatment for FCR. Clinical Impact StatementQuestion: Is emotion-focused therapy (EFT) a potentially effective treatment for fear of cancer recurrence (FCR)? Findings: EFT was found to be an effective intervention for helping a Portuguese sample of people seen in routine practice to deal with their cancer-related distress, including FCR. Meaning: Based on this exploratory study, EFT might be a useful alternative treatment for FCR. Next Steps: Replication studies and randomized controlled trials will be necessary to confirm and expand these results.

Addressing health in psychotherapy: Future directions from a community wellness lens.

“…This highlights a critical need for future studies to examine the efficacy and effectiveness of other psychotherapy theories when working with populations navigating physical health issues or employed in the health care setting. For example, in this special section, Almeida et al (2022) demonstrated that emotion-focused therapy was perceived as helpful and showed significant effects on psychotherapy outcomes (albeit not clinically reliable change) among people experiencing fear of cancer reoccurrence. As noted in the introduction to the special section (Raque & Mitchell, 2022), theories that more fully address power, oppression, and privilege, like relational-cultural theory (Miller, 1976) and narrative therapy (White & Epston, 1990), have received very limited attention by psychotherapy health researchers.…”

“…Research examining the benefits of psychotherapy among populations navigating physical health conditions or employed in the health care setting is needed. As described and replicated in articles within this special section (Almeida et al, 2022;Kilkus, 2022;King et al, 2021;Richey & Pointer, 2021;Piers et al, 2021), much of the literature in this area has focused on cognitive behavioral therapy. This highlights a critical need for future studies to examine the efficacy and effectiveness of other psychotherapy theories when working with populations navigating physical health issues or employed in the health care setting.…”

“…If relevant, instruments that capture symptoms specific to a client's physical health condition could also be included. When considering ways to capture client voices more fully in feedback or outcome measures, clinicians may wish to select instruments used by authors in this special section (Almeida et al, 2022) that are generated using client-specific input (i.e., Personal Questionnaire, Elliott et al, 2016). Overall, integrating physical health into one's theoretical conceptualization, interventions, and feedback or outcome measures may foster accountability for clinicians to identify and monitor for physical health-related opportunities throughout their practice with clients.…”

Addressing health in psychotherapy from a community wellness framework: Introduction to the special section.

“…The next two articles in the second part focus specifically on cancer survivorship, the first of which presents a theoretical overview of how to apply CBT (Kilkus, 2022) and the second provides preliminary data on an emotion-focused therapy (EFT) intervention to address survivors’ fear of cancer recurrence (Almeida et al, 2022). Given the prevalence of cancer in the United States, one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer at some point during their lifetime (American Cancer Society, 2016); psychotherapists may find these two articles helpful for addressing survivors’ personal sites of well-being.…”

Penerapan Emotion-Focused Therapy dalam Menurunkan Depresi Lansia yang tinggal di Panti Wreda

“…Kondisi perubahan yang paling tampak adalah Claudia tidak lagi mengembangkan emotional blocking. Sejumlah penelitian aplikasi EFT pada individu lansia dengan permasalahan kesehatan spesifik, seperti kanker dan kanker payudara dengan komorbid gangguan depresi, menunjukkan bahwa EFT dapat menurunkan gejala depresi pada partisipan (Connolly-zubbot et al, 2019;Almeida et al, 2022;Hissa et al, 2022;Salarirad et al, 2022).…”