Processing Emotions in a Emotion-Focused Therapy. Exploring the Impact of at Two-Chair Dialogue Intervention, 2018

In the field of psychotherapy we try to better understand what is causing change for people experiencing mental difficulties.. In this research project, we tested whether we could help individuals who were struggling with self-criticism, anxiety and depression using a method derived from emotional-focused therapy, called the 2-chair exercise. This method is about helping people to activate, get in touch, and change difficult feelings and experiences. The person is asked to imagine, talk to and stand up to the critical part of them. The results indicate that the 2-chair exercise helps to activate strong emotions, reducing anxiety and depression. Contrary to what we expected, the research results show no immediate reduction of self-criticism. Those who went into this therapy form experienced it as intense, tiring, but useful and important. The research project has given us a better understanding of how the 2-chair exercise works and how it is experienced to use this method.