Use of emotion-focused therapy in the treatment of a case of anorexia nervosa

ABSTRACT

Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is an empirically validated form of psychotherapy that has been indicated in the treatment of eating disorders given the alexithymic nature of individuals with eating disorders, particularly anorexia. There were two aspects to the single case study of a client diagnosed with anorexia nervosa who took part in an emotion-focused therapy across 28 months. First, the Observer-Rated Measure of Affect Regulation (O-MAR) was used to track change in emotion experience across treatment. Second, a task analytic research methodology was employed to track client process as she engaged in the two-chair dialog for self-evaluative splits throughout therapy. Implications for updating the model for working with self-evaluative splits in application to this specific population are outlined. The detailed case study is intended to serve as a stepping stone for future research regarding efficacious processes when using EFT with eating disorder clients, particularly those whose suffering has been chronic and severe.

KEYWORDS:

• Anorexia nervosa
• emotion-focused therapy
• emotion regulation
• two-chair task
• task analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval

This case study was approved (IRB approval number 145) by Argosy University-Schaumburg Institutional Review Board at The American School of Professional Psychology. The case study participant provided written informed consent for audio/video recordings for educational and research purposes to both the treating clinical psychologist and the primary investigator of this study.