The Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (SEFT) Therapy Combined with Dhikr to Overcome Thanatophobia in the Older People
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Retno Twistiandayani Retno
Adjeng Rizma Elfariyani
Natalia Christin Tiara Revita
Nur Chakim
Babuacar Jassey
Abstract
Older adults are a phase of human life accompanied by a decline in physical,
psychological, and social conditions. These changes have the potential to cause mental
health issues such as thanatophobia or an excessive and irrational fear of death. One
way to overcome is through non-pharmacological therapy, the Spiritual Emotional
Freedom Technique (SEFT) therapy, combined with dhikr. This study evaluates the
effectiveness of SEFT therapy combined with dhikr as a complementary intervention in
geriatric nursing on thanatophobia levels in older adults. It employed a pre-experimental
design with a one-group pretest-posttest design. There were 24 respondents with a total
sampling technique. The independent variable was the combination of SEFT therapy
and dhikr, and the dependent variable was the levels of thanatophobia. The instrument
was a Thanatophobia questionnaire. Therapy was conducted in four sessions over a
period of two weeks, with each session lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. Data
analysis used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with a significance level of p < 0.05. Pre-
test results showed that most respondents experienced very high levels of thanatophobia
(70.83%), with the average score reaching 45. After intervention, the average score
dropped to 15, and most respondents (87.5%) fell into the mild thanatophobia levels.
The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test obtained a p-value of 0.000, indicating that the SEFT
therapy and dhikr were significantly effective in reducing thanatophobia levels in
respondents. The SEFT therapy combined with dhikr could be an alternative
complementary nursing intervention in overcoming thanatophobia among older people.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Retno Twistiandayani Retno, Adjeng Rizma Elfariyani, Natalia Christin Tiara Revita, Nur Chakim, Babuacar Jassey
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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