Emotional Awareness and Expression Interview: Examining Interview Content and Patient Experiences in Two Medical Samples

AbstractA single session of Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) —the EAET Interview—was previously shown to lead to clinical benefits for patients with centralized somatic conditions in primary care (Ziadni et al. in Health Psychol 37(3):282–290, 2018) and tertiary care (Carty et al. in Pain Med 20(7):1321–1329, 2019) settings. There has yet to be an exa mination of patients’ experiences of and reactions to the EAET Interview, which is crucial in evaluating possible clinical implementation of the interview. We conducted secondary analyses on 88 patients (M age  = 41.32, 90.9% women) from the two prior trials (primary careN = 51; tertiary careN = 37). Analyses examined interview processes (stress disclosure themes, working alliance, and emotional processing) and patients’ reactions to the interview (interview credibility and perceived value of the interview), comparing the two samples and examining correlations among these variables . All patients disclosed at least one stressful life experience, commonly interpersonal problems (89.2%) and childhood adversity (51.5%). Patients had moderately high levels of working alliance and emotional processing during the interview and reported high interview credibility and perceived value of the interview. More extensive emotional processing of stressors was associated with more positive patient reactions to the interview, including higher interview credibility (r = .23) and perceived value (r =...

Source: Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - October 3, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research