Interoceptive Awareness and Emotion Regulation Among Individuals with Depression and Anxiety in Emotionally-Focused Individual Therapy

Abstract

Depression and anxiety may be considered transdiagnostically as emotional disorders with emotion dysregulation at the centre of their development and maintenance. Research has found that interoceptive dysregulation may also serve to precipitate, maintain and exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Attention to emotion regulation via interoceptive experiences could play a role in transdiagnostic therapeutic approaches in treating these emotional disorders. The present thesis examines the relationship between interoceptive awareness, emotion dysregulation, depression and anxiety at baseline in a sample of people with emotional disorders. It also examines how depression, anxiety, emotion dysregulation, and interoceptive awareness changed among this population across an experiential attachment-based therapeutic intervention of Emotionally-Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT). And last, in order to examine the effects of change in interoceptive awareness on the course of treatment, the present study examines how any changes in interoceptive awareness in the first half of 15 weeks of therapy may predict changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and emotion regulation across the course of treatment. The findings suggest that, at baseline, higher levels of interoceptive awareness were significantly related to lower levels of self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as emotion dysregulation. Additionally, depression and anxiety significantly decreased across the treatment while emotion dysregulation decreased and interoceptive awareness increased but not significantly. Increases in interoceptive awareness in the first half of 15 weeks of therapy, particularly increasing interoceptive attention regulation and self-regulation as well as bodily trust, were significantly related to decreases in emotion dysregulation across therapy sessions. The clinical implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.