Emotion-Focused Therapy's Empty-Chair Task for Complicated Grief: An Open Trial.
The Empty-Chair Task for Unfinished Business has been studied in the context of treatments for trauma, depression and anxiety and the literature explicitly talks about its potential for bereavement processes. However, it has not yet been studied as an intervention for complicated grief. The present...
| Published in: | Journal of Loss & Trauma Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 1192 - 1214 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195895470&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195895470 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15325024 HZH jtl: Journal of Loss & Trauma issn: 15325024 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 vid: 31 iid: 6 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 195895470 10.1080/15325024.2025.2548238 ppf: 1192 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.7MB tig: atl: Emotion-Focused Therapy's Empty-Chair Task for Complicated Grief: An Open Trial. aug: au: Gamoneda, José Jódar, Rafael Timulak, Ladislav affil: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland su: Task performance Clinical trials Emotions Complicated grief Brief psychotherapy Treatment effectiveness Descriptive statistics Telepsychology Control groups Pre-tests & post-tests Individualized medicine Patient aftercare sug: subj: Task performance Clinical trials Emotions Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology) Home Health Care Services Complicated grief Brief psychotherapy Treatment effectiveness Descriptive statistics Telepsychology Control groups Pre-tests & post-tests Individualized medicine Patient aftercare keyword: emotion-focused therapy empty-chair task teletherapy unfinished business emotion-focused therapy empty-chair task teletherapy unfinished business ab: The Empty-Chair Task for Unfinished Business has been studied in the context of treatments for trauma, depression and anxiety and the literature explicitly talks about its potential for bereavement processes. However, it has not yet been studied as an intervention for complicated grief. The present preliminary study takes the form of an open trial, in which participants received a brief individual therapy consisting of three sessions addressing complicated grief. In the second session, the task was applied, and changes in symptoms were measured at the end of treatment and during follow-up. Additionally, a process-outcome study was conducted to examine whether the degree of resolution of emotional processes in the Empty-Chair Task with the deceased, predicts changes in outcomes. The intervention was delivered as a teletherapy on a sample of 26 individuals. The study revealed significant improvements (with large pre-post and follow-up effect sizes) in symptomatology post-intervention, and particularly at a two-month follow-up. Clinically significant changes were also observed, increasing to 36% in the follow-up. The results also showed that the in-session task resolution of Unfinished Business predicted an improvement in grief symptomatology both at post-intervention and follow-up. Overall, this study underscores the potential value of this task for complicated grief, highlighting the importance of emotional processing, providing valuable insights for clinical practice. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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