Dr Anna Robinson and Professor Robert Elliot

Dr Anna Robinson from the School of Education was recently awarded the Outstanding Research Award by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for her innovative work on Emotion-focused group therapy for autism spectrum: a pilot study. 

This research piloted a group Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) for adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum (EFT-AS), using video-playback of interpersonal difficulties and emotion expression episodes.  It particularly focused on the dimensions of emotion regulation, self-reflection, and cognitive empathy and affective empathy. Six participants undertook two 3-person groups of a 9-week EFT-AS protocol. Results showed significant increases on all four dimensions and overall.