The good, the hard, and the emotionally difficult: Therapist experiences delivering both protocols in a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE

Randomised Control Trials play an important role in psychotherapy research and have a defining impact on mental health policy. However, relatively little research has been published investigating the experiences of therapists participating in such trials. The present paper reports on a study investigating the experiences of therapists trained to deliver both protocols within an RCT.

METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 therapists who participated in an RCT comparing Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) as treatments for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Transcribed interviews were qualitatively analysed using a descriptive and interpretative framework.

RESULTS

Therapists described their experience in terms of the many positive aspects of participation, the enormous challenges of participation, and the sometimes agonizing moments of emotional difficulty. Thus, findings are reported within the domains: "The Good," "The Hard," and "The Emotionally Difficult." Two additional domains summarize findings related to therapist experience of having to simultaneously deliver "The Two Protocols" and therapist-reported phenomena deemed as "Helpful."

DISCUSSION: For a majority, though not all, the positive aspects of participation mitigated the challenges. Similarly, a majority, though not all, reported that having to deliver two protocols posed additional challenges but was not in and of itself a problem.