Islamic Therapy and Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (SEFT) Interventions in Reducing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for Survivors of Mount Semeru Eruption

Abstract

This research aims to determine the effectiveness of Islamic and spiritual emotional freedom technique (SEFT) interventions in reducing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the survivors of the Mount Semeru eruption. This research has three phases: 1) Mapping the PTSD levels among survivors (n = 250); 2) Randomly choosing the survivor with PTSD to engage in either intervention: Islamic therapy (n = 10), or SEFT (n = 12); 3) post-intervention interview to describe the PTSD state post-intervention (n = 3). The first phase employed the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) to collect PTSD information among 250 survivors and then discovered that the mean of survivors’ PTSD levels was moderate. The second phase was executed using a two-group pretest-posttest design and then analysed using a Wilcoxon-signed rank test; it revealed that either group significantly reduced the PTSD level among the survivors. Furthermore, the post-test results of both groups displayed no significant discrepancy. The third phase qualitatively confirmed that the PTSD level among the survivors was reduced after the intervention. Moreover, aside from intervention results, the interview exhibited that internal and external factors also determined PTSD development. The implication of the finding will be discussed further.