Evaluating the feasibility of Emotion Focused Therapy for athletes with mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety

There has been increasing attention to rates of mental illness among athletes, yet there exist few studies evaluating clinical interventions for addressing mental illness among athletes. This study evaluated the feasibility of Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) for mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression among competitive athletes using a pilot randomized control trial design. Sixty-eight varsity athletes were recruited; following screening, 25 (10 men, 15 women) were assigned to a treatment (n = 13) or waitlist control group (n = 12). The treatment consisted of 12 online one-hour sessions of EFT. Athletes completed measures of depression, anxiety, emotion dysregulation, and performance satisfaction at baseline, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up. Survey scores at each timepoint were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Assessment of study feasibility included recruitment/randomization procedures, number of eligible participants, assessment procedures, retention rates, and adherence/compliance to treatment. For the intervention group, 8 athletes completed all 12 therapy sessions; 5 athletes completed between 1-7 sessions. For those who completed all sessions, 6 demonstrated symptom reduction below mild levels of depression or anxiety, while two athletes showed stable or increased symptoms from baseline to follow-up. In the control group, only 1 athlete showed decreases in symptoms of depression and anxiety, while 11 athletes had stable or increasing symptoms of depression or anxiety. Emotion dysregulation scores improved for athletes in the intervention group and remained stable for athletes in the control group. Results provide preliminary support for the feasibility of EFT for treating mood disorders and reducing emotion dysregulation among athletes.