Autistic adult experiences of interpersonal process recall as a therapeutic task in emotion-focused therapy

Lower levels of experiential processing are associated with poorer therapeutic outcomes. Clients with autistic process are reported to experience difficulties in emotion and experiential processing. These processing differences in affective empathy for self (emotion-regulation) and other (empathy) and cognitive empathy for self (self-reflection) and other (mental representation) often result in emotional injuries and trauma-related experiences. In this brief paper, we explore the experiences of clients with autistic process with the use of Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) as a therapeutic task used to deepen self-experience and self-other empathy within group psychotherapy. We draw from the experiences of twelve clients who undertook a 9-week Emotion-Focused Therapy-group treatment. Qualitative data is presented through a thematic analysis of client experiences of IPR. We triangulate this with quantitative data as well as qualitative illustrations drawn change interview data. The small number of participants in the study mean that the findings have limited generalisability. However, we propose Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) as a helpful therapeutic task for clients with autistic process which helps to deepen emotion and experiential processing.