CalmER: Evaluating Emotional Resolution Therapy for Anxiety in Healthcare Workers
Supporting healthcare workers with an accessible, remote intervention designed to reduce anxiety and improve emotional well-being.
This study explores the effects of Emotional Resolution Therapy, or EmRes, compared with an active control intervention called Mindfulness-Based Gratitude, or MBG, among healthcare workers experiencing elevated anxiety.
Why This Study Matters
Healthcare workers often experience high levels of anxiety, stress, depression, and burnout due to intense work demands. These concerns became even more prominent following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many healthcare workers also face barriers to traditional therapy, including limited time, scheduling issues, cost, and stigma. This study investigated whether a remote, scalable intervention could offer a more accessible form of support.
What Is Emotional Resolution Therapy?
Emotional Resolution Therapy, or EmRes, is a body-focused intervention designed to help individuals process and resolve the physical sensations associated with emotions.
Rather than focusing only on thoughts or discussion-based therapy, EmRes works by helping participants become aware of the body’s response to emotional distress and allowing those sensations to resolve naturally.
Key Points
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Remote, one-on-one sessions
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Body-focused emotional processing
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Designed to reduce distress linked to anxiety
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Delivered over a structured 9-week periodsaaa
What Was Mindfulness-Based Gratitude?
The active control group participated in Mindfulness-Based Gratitude, or MBG.
This intervention focused on appreciation, mindfulness, and resilience through practices such as guided meditations, gratitude journaling, and reflective mindfulness exercises.
This allowed the study to compare EmRes with another supportive intervention, rather than comparing it to no treatment.
How the Study Was Conducted
This randomized controlled trial compared EmRes with Mindfulness-Based Gratitude in healthcare workers with elevated anxiety symptoms.
Study Details
Participants:
124 healthcare workers with follow-up data on the primary outcome
Groups:
EmRes group: 60 participants
MBG group: 64 participants
Age Range:
18 to 61 years old
Setting:
All procedures were completed remotely
Timeline:
Approximately 19 weeks total
Study Phases
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Baseline Period
Week 1 -
Intervention Period
9 weeks -
Follow-Up 1
Week 10 -
Follow-Up 2
Week 19
Study Measures
The study measured anxiety as the primary outcome, with stress and depression as secondary outcomes.
Primary Outcome
Anxiety
Measured using the PROMIS Anxiety Short Form
Secondary Outcomes
Stress
Measured using the Perceived Stress Scale
Depression
Measured using the Beck Depression Inventory
Additional Measures
Participants also provided physiological data and dried blood spot samples to explore possible biological changes related to the interventions.
What the Study Found
Both groups showed improvements in anxiety over time. However, participants in the EmRes group reported significantly greater reductions in anxiety compared with those in the MBG group.
Key Finding
EmRes participants had lower anxiety scores at Follow-Up 1 compared with participants in the Mindfulness-Based Gratitude group.
Additional Mental Health Outcomes
Stress and depression followed a similar pattern to anxiety, but the effects were not statistically significant in this trial.
This suggests that while EmRes showed stronger results for anxiety, additional research may be needed to understand its impact on broader mental health outcomes such as stress and depression.
What These Findings Suggest
The findings suggest that EmRes may be an effective, scalable, and accessible remote intervention for healthcare workers experiencing anxiety.
Both interventions were associated with improvements over time, but EmRes showed a greater reduction in anxiety by the first follow-up point.
This is especially relevant for healthcare settings where workers may need flexible, low-barrier mental health support.
Ongoing Analysis
Additional analyses will examine whether the effects of EmRes are sustained over time.
The next stage of the study will review:
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Follow-Up 2 data
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Sleep, activity, and stress data
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Inflammatory cytokines from dried blood spot samples
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Changes from baseline to Follow-Up 1
Why This Matters for Healthcare Systems
Remote mental health interventions like EmRes may provide a valuable support option for healthcare workers who face occupational stress and limited access to traditional care.
For organizations, scalable interventions may help create more accessible pathways for emotional support, especially in high-pressure clinical environments.
Research Team
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Nidhi Munugeti
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Kimya Afshar, BA
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Katie Frestone, BA
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Summer Engelkoh, PhD
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George M. Slavich, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles