A quest for self-soothing: A systematic case study into emotion-focused therapy with an emotionally avoidant client who committed sexual offenses.

Objective: The current study is part of a multiple case study that investigated the emotional change in individuals who have committed sexual offenses (ISOs). This case study highlights how one client used sex as a maladaptive coping strategy to suppress negative emotions.

Method: A mixed-methods design was used to track changes in the client's affect regulation (AR) during four phases, including a baseline (Phase A), treatment as usual (Phase B), treatment with an emotion-focused therapy (EFT) component added (Phase C), and follow up (Phase A).

Results: The qualitative description with verbatim clinical vignettes, revealed deeper insight into some important steps and hindrances and the impact of specific EFT-interventions. Quantitative analysis of self-report and observational measures showed a significant improvement in the client's AR across different phases of treatment.

Conclusions: The study improves our knowledge of the emotional change in ISOs during treatment and illustrates some key interventions, steps, and hindrances.