Emotional processing and relational marital and family therapy

Abstract

Our study aimed to investigate whether Relational Marital and Family Therapy (RMFT) improves emotional processing skills. For this, we designed a two-part study. The first part involved 60 participants, 30 in the experimental group, who received 12 therapeutic sessions in accordance with RMFT, and 30 in the control group, who received no psychotherapy. Both groups completed The Emotional Processing Scale - EPS (Harper and Reid, 2007a) during the same time span. The results showed that in the experimental group there was a statistically significant improvement (relative to the initial state and compared to the control group) in all three subscales (appraisal subscale, expression subscale, and emotional stability) and over the whole EPS, while no statistically significant differences were found in the control group. In the second part of the study, we conducted RMFT with three couples to gain a more comprehensive insight into possible changes in emotional processing. The participants noted changes in the direction of improved emotional processing, as can be seen from the EPS and client statements. The research thus confirms that 1) emotional processing skills can be improved in the process of psychotherapy, and 2) that RMFT enhances emotional processing skills and, consequently, improves mental health.