Emotion Focused Family Therapy for Parents of Children With Mental Health Difficulties

Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) is a promising intervention that aims to teach parents advanced skills to support their child's development of emotion skills and increase their adaptive behaviours, potentially leading to improvements in their child's psychological functioning and family functioning more broadly.This randomized controlled trial (RCT; EFFT vs waitlist control) will (1) test the efficacy of a 6-week group EFFT program on parent and child outcomes and (2) examine maintenance of treatment gains up to four months post-intervention.

Inclusion Criteria:Parent of child aged 7 to 15 years old with anxiety, depression, or behavioural challengesParent of child is willing to participate in interventionParent is living at home with the childExclusion Criteria:Parent or child not proficient enough in speaking/understanding English to complete measures or EFFT intervention componentsParent or child with a severe mental health disorder (e.g., active suicidality and psychosis) is not considered suitable for the trial intervention due to the clinical need for immediate interventionParent or child is actively receiving, or due to receive, intensive psychological intervention focused on cognitive and/or behavioural strategies to intervene with emotional or behavioural difficultiesParent or child has any disabilities in language, speech or hearing that would interfere with their completion of the EFFT and measuresParent or child are allergic to adhesive electrode gel use in some tasks (i.e., sodium chloride)