Working with the inner critic in patients with depression using chairwork: a pilot study.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research

Background:

• Depression often involves self-criticism and psychological distress.
• Cognitive-behavioral treatments may not fully address emotional deficits.
• Existing emotion-focused therapies like chairwork are typically long-term.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the efficacy of a brief emotion-focused chairwork intervention for self-criticism in depression.
• To evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and safety of this short-term approach.

Main Methods:

• A pre-post A-B design with seven patients receiving three manualized chairwork sessions.
• Evaluated using Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), emotion regulation, self-criticism/reassurance, self-compassion, self-esteem, and suicidality scales.
• Patient satisfaction and intervention safety were assessed.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements in depressive symptoms and self-compassion at one week and one month follow-up.
• Enhanced emotion regulation and self-esteem, with decreased self-criticism and increased self-reassurance.
• High patient satisfaction and no drop-outs, indicating intervention safety.

Conclusions:

• Brief emotion-focused chairwork is a feasible, safe, and well-accepted intervention for self-criticism in depression.
• Significant symptomatic improvements were observed.
• Large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm effectiveness.