Narrative-Informed, Emotion-Focused Psychotherapy in Synchronous, Online Chat Groups for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Few, scalable, evidence-based psychosocial interventions exist for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (AYAs, 18–39 years old). Using an existing, facilitated, online synchronous chat group-plus-education model (OSG+E), we replaced their educational workbook with an AYA-created film to stimulate an age-specific, emotion-focused group discussion (OSG+V). This randomized proof-of-concept trial compared the two models' content suitability, group processes, and feasibility over 9 months in 34 male and female AYAs with a range of cancers. AYAs rated the OSG + V model more suitable, cohesive, and as having higher levels of important group processes than the OSG+E. A larger randomized trial is feasible for this AYA-appropriate, emotion-focused OSG + V model.