Analysis of a motivational chairwork intervention
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Analysis of a motivational chairwork intervention for adults diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa
IRAS ID
307827
Contact name
Anna Oldershaw
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental health problems. Anorexia nervosa (AN), a type of ED, has the highest mortality in comparison to other EDs (Arcelus et al., 2011). Despite this, it is well documented that those living with an ED and AN experience ambivalence (mixed feelings) towards recovery (Reid et al., 2008; Schmidt & Treasure, 2006). Chairwork is an intervention that represents a collection of therapeutic techniques which incorporate the position, dialogue and movement between chairs to elicit change that can resolve ambivalence.
The “future selves” chairwork intervention, aims to resolve ambivalence by interviewing the recovered self in five years and the self that has maintained an ED, utilising movement between chairs that represent each self (Pugh & Salter, 2018). Preliminary research has found that chairwork is efficacious in resolving ambivalence, (Greenberg & Watson, 1998). This research aims to understand the mechanisms that lead to change.
There are two parts to this study. 'Part A’ will involve video recording the intervention and completing research questionnaires. ‘Part B’ will involve being interviewed after the intervention. Participants can complete the whole study, just part A or just part B.
'Part A' will use Task Analysis to investigate the mechanisms of change within the chairwork ‘task’ (Greenberg, 2007) in which a model of change is derived from theory and clinical experiences, then refined through real-life observations.
For 'Part B' data will be collected using semi-structured interviews. Interviews will be transcribed then analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). IPA is deemed a useful approach to explore rich phenomena with an emphasis on meaning(Smith et al., 2009).
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0196
Date of REC Opinion
5 May 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion