General Discussion 211 7 The research question which was formulated has been answered. However, the explorative character of this research has clearly raised a lot of more new questions related to personas, tailoring and just in time online interventions. This thesis initiated research on developing a virtual coach for emotional eaters that would allow them, by means of self-management, to receive appropriate coaching, and gain a better understanding of their own emotional eating behaviour, emotions, and emotion regulation skills. We cautiously conclude that a virtual coach can be a useful alternative for traditional face-to-face therapy for emotional eaters, and could potentially be implemented in a hybrid format in the future. However, at this stage, we cannot conclude that it is effective. The nature of the problem of emotional eating behaviour is complex and persistent, and for now, it is an illusion to think that a virtual coach can solve it. An emotional eater is best off in mental health care. But the use of such a virtual coach could lower thresholds by increasing understanding of one’s own emotions and discovering that they can strengthen emotion regulation skills to influence them.
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