Relating process to outcome in emotion-focused therapy

This chapter focuses closely on the process of experiencing as well as on other processes that closely relate to or impact this variable. It compares and distinguishes experiencing from other processes, such as other emotional processing concepts. The chapter also relates experiencing to empathy, the alliance, and perceptual processing, as well as to other client or therapist effects impacting experiencing–outcome relationships. Finally, it offers several implications of the research on experiencing for clinical practice. The process of emotional processing measured as experiencing during emotion narratives has also been related to emotional arousal. The chapter reiterates how experiential and narrative process research, general emotion research, and application of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) to newer, more difficult populations such as clients with trauma, personality disorders, and eating disorders, continue to inform EFT theory and practice to yield rich findings that can advance our knowledge of how to help people through psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)