Southward MW, Wilson AC, Cheavens JS. On what do therapists agree? Assessing therapist evaluations of emotion regulation strategy effectiveness.
Psychol Psychother 2021;
94:231-246. [PMID:
32853449 DOI:
10.1111/papt.12302]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To develop more unified, process-based, and disseminable psychotherapy treatments, it is important to determine whether there is consensus among therapists regarding intervention strategies.
DESIGN
Because emotion regulation is a cornerstone of modern treatments and a thriving area of clinical research, we assessed therapists' ratings of the effectiveness of commonly studied emotion regulation strategies.
METHODS
Therapists (n = 582) read eleven vignettes describing stressful scenarios and rated the effectiveness of ten emotion regulation strategies in each scenario.
RESULTS
Across therapists, we found general consensus regarding the most (i.e., problem-solving) and least (i.e., concealing emotions) effective strategies. Cognitive/behavioural/third-wave therapists rated acceptance and distraction as more effective, and emotional expression and gathering information as less effective, than other therapists, Fs> 4.20, ps < .05, whereas hours of clinical experience were generally unrelated to strategy effectiveness ratings.
CONCLUSIONS
We discuss what these points of agreement and relative disagreement among therapists reveal about a more unified, process-based treatment approach and how these results can guide emotion regulation research.
PRACTITIONER POINTS
There is general consensus among practising therapists that problem-solving is the most effective emotion regulation strategy and expressive suppression is the least effective. However, CBT-oriented therapists rated acceptance and distraction as more effective than non-CBT-oriented therapists. Non-CBT-oriented therapists rated emotional expression and gathering information as more effective than CBT-oriented therapists. Years of experience were unrelated to ratings of emotion regulation strategy effectiveness.
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