Comparison of the effect of emotion-focused therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on emotion regulation in women with Covid-19 grief disorder

Improving emotion regulation can be helpful in coping with Covid-19 grief disorder. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy of emotion regulation in women with Covid-19 grief disorder.

The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and two-month follow-up. From 25 to 45 years old women with grief disorder (caused by Covid-19) in Tehran in 2020-2021, 45 people were selected by voluntary sampling and randomly assigned to three groups (15 people in each group). The research tool included a scale of difficulty in emotion regulation (Gertz and Roemer, 2004). One group received emotion-based therapy (10 sessions of one and a half hours) and one group received mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (9 sessions of one and a half hours). The control group was placed on a waiting list and did not receive any intervention during the study.

The results showed that both interventions had a significant effect on emotion regulation components compared to the control group (P<0.01). The results also showed that emotion-focused therapy significantly reduced the mean components of emotion rejection, difficulty in impulse control, lack of emotional awareness and limited access to emotion regulation strategies compared to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

The results indicate the competitive effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy compared to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on emotion regulation.