Emergent Life Events in Psychotherapy

What is it about?

Emergent life events (ELEs) are unexpected, significant stressors (for example, eviction from the home, death in the family) that are reported by clients during a session of psychotherapy. This study looked at how therapists respond to ELEs in the context of delivering an evidence-based psychotherapy protocol for children with depression, anxiety, trauma, and conduct problems. Results showed that when an ELE was reported in session, therapists were significantly less likely to follow the protocol compared with when no ELE was reported.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Psychology researchers have developed hundreds of evidence-based treatments - that is, treatments that have been effective at improving client symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma, etc. in controlled studies. But these evidence-based treatments often don't have a way of responding to surprises like ELEs that are frequent among low-income and diverse populations. It is crucial to study the impact of ELEs on treatment delivery, so that we can figure out how to help therapists effectively address ELEs and in turn, maintain the benefits of our existing treatments.