The effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy on body image among women with eating disorders during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

BACKGROUND: It was argued that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown could affect eating disorders (EDs) by triggering EDs behaviors and exacerbating existing symptoms. This study was carried out to examine the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) on body image of women with EDs during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. METHODS: This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and a control group. The statistical population included all people with physical image disorder from September to October 2021. Thirty-four were selected using a purposeful sampling method. They were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 17) and control (n = 17) groups. The experimental group underwent eight sessions of 120-minute online treatment, one session per week. The control group did not receive any intervention until the end of the experimental group. Measurement tool was Cash Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ). The experimental group received eight sessions of EFT; however, the control group did not receive such training. The research data were examined through multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in SPSS software. RESULTS: The intervention yielded more substantial outcomes concerning the variables mentioned in the experimental group, surpassing the impact observed in the control group. Based on the scores from the appearance assessment scales (F = 0.39, P < 0.001), appearance orientation (F = 196.71, P < 0.001), and satisfaction with body area (F = 0.25, P = 0.61), there was a significant difference between the two groups. According to the eta-squared (η2), the appearance orientation scale had the most significant impact on the effectiveness of EFT. This means that only 0.87% of the difference in appearance orientation scores after the test could be attributed to the therapy's effectiveness. CONCLUSION: Given the results of the current study and the research background, EFT can be recommended as an efficient interventional method to improve women's body image.