Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is a chronic and debilitating condition characterised by high comorbidity. Its main features are important for our understanding of other anxiety disorders. Alongside pharmacological treatment, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an established psychological therapy for GAD. Its effectiveness is, however, limited with only an estimated 50% of clients presenting in the nonclinical range after a course of treatment. Furthermore, not all clients prefer CBT as a psychological therapy. For these reasons there have been calls in the research literature to develop other psychological treatments for GAD. Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is an empirically established treatment for depression, a disorder frequently found comorbid with GAD. Recently, EFT was developed for GAD and was tested in an open trial with promising results. The current research project is a feasibility testing randomised controlled study that compares the efficacy of EFT (n=30) vs. an established treatment for GAD, CBT (n=30). Sixty clients presenting in a primary care psychology/counselling service will be randomly assigned to two conditions: EFT and CBT. Outcomes will be assessed using several measures (GAD-7, GADSS, BDI, CORE-OM, PSWQ). Clients will be assessed prior to, and at the end of therapy as well as at 6 months follow-up. Based on findings from the initial open EFT trial, with regards the optimal length of therapy, it is proposed that therapy last between 16-24 sessions. This study aims to test the feasibility of a full comparison randomised controlled trial. It will test subject recruitment, therapist adherence to manualised treatment, and client retention rates. It will also provide estimates of comparative outcomes that can inform power calculations for a definitive trial. It will also gather qualitative data on clients’ experiences of the two respective active interventions and their impact.
