PENGARUH PENINGKATAN REGULASI EMOSI TERHADAP PENURUNAN TINGKAT DEPRESI PADA MAHASISWA

College students are vulnerable population to experience depression due to various external pressures. Depression in students is related to maladaptive emotional regulation abilities. Therefore, interventions are needed to help students have adaptive emotional regulation skills so that depression levels can decrease. Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is a therapy focusing on emotional experiences, emotional regulation, and new positive meanings to painful emotional experiences. The aim of the research is to determine the effect of EFT in improving emotional regulation thereby reducing levels of depression. This research used a quasi-experimental pretest posttest control group design. The research subjects consisted of 12 students aged between 19-23 years with severe levels of depression. The instruments used were DERS-SF (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form) to measure emotional regulation, and BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory-II) to measure the level of depression. Data analysis used the Wilcoxon Test and Mann-Whitney Test. The results showed that the level of depression in the experimental group significantly decreased (Z= -2.207, p=0.027), while the level of depression in the control group did not change significantly (Z=-1.511, p=0.131). The results of this study provide initial support for the application and further study of EFT in depressed students.