Emotional processing during experiential treatment of depression

This study explored the importance of early and late emotional processing to change in depressive and general symptomology, self-esteem, and interpersonal problems for 34 clients who received 16-20 sessions of experiential treatment for depression. The independent contribution to outcome of the early working alliance was also explored. Early and late emotional processing predicted reductions in reported symptoms and gains in self-esteem. More important, emotional-processing skill significantly improved during treatment. Hierarchical regression models demonstrated that late emotional processing both mediated the relationship between clients' early emotional processing capacity and outcome and was the sole emotional-processing variable that independently predicted improvement. After controlling for emotional processing, the working alliance added an independent contribution to explaining improvement in reported symptomology only.