Emotion–focused therapy

Abstract

In an Emotion‐focused approach emotion is seen as foundational in the construction of the self and is a key determinant of self‐organization. As well as having emotion people also live in a constant process of making sense of our emotions. Personal meaning is seen as emerging by the self‐organization and explication of one's own emotional experience and optimal adaptation involves an integration of reason and emotion. In this framework therapists are viewed as Emotion coaches who work to enhance emotion‐focused coping by helping people become aware of, accept and make sense of their emotional experience. Emotion coaching in therapy is based on two phases: Arriving and Leaving. A major premise is that one cannot leave a place until one has arrived at it. Three major empirically‐supported principles of Emotion Awareness, Emotion Regulation and Emotion Transformation that guide emotion coaching are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Demoralization, Hypomanic Activation, and Disconstraint Scores on MMPI-2 Scales as Significant Predictors of Hypersexual Behavior

“…Clinicians should help hypersexual patients increase tolerance for unpleasant affective experiences so they can learn to survive their challenging moments in life without having to engage in unhealthy sexual activities to escape their emotional discomfort. For example, mindfulness exercises and theoretical perspectives embodied in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (e.g., Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006;Hayes & Strosahl, 2005) and Emotion Focused Therapy (e.g., Greenberg, 2002Greenberg, , 2004 could increase tolerance for emotionally painful experiences and decrease the use of ineffective strategies employed to defend against negative affect. 6.…”

Responsive Integrative Treatment of Clients with PTSD and Trauma-Related Disorders: An Expanded Evidence-Based Model

“…EFT principles, originally developed for the treatment of depression (Watson et al, 2003), have been effectively applied to couples therapy (Johnson, Hunsley, Greenberg, & Schindler, 1999) and complex trauma (Paivio et al, 2010). Experiential methods of deepening access to experience are of particular importance for trauma focused work at CF 8 (Bradshaw et al, 2011), relationship building at CF 4, and schema level work at CF 10.The resulting focus on themes relevant to therapeutic progress provides a basis for collaboration between therapist and client and enhances the effectiveness of treatment (Greenberg, 2004;Greenberg & Goldman, 2007). This kind of clinician responsiveness is increasingly being incorporated into treatment manuals used in efficacy trials, which specify the principles on which decisions about the use of particular interventions are to be based rather than dictating the details session by session (e.g., EFT: Watson, Gordon, Stermac, Kalogerakos, & Steckley, 2003;ECCT: Ehlers et al, 2005; schema therapy for BPD: Giesen-Bloo et al, 2006).…”

Co-occurring Disorders, Emotion/Mood Literacy, and Emotion/Mood Regulation

“…Pharmaceutical, cognitive, and behavioural approaches continue to be the major practice tools to help regulate emotion/mood processes. However, there is a growing interest in attending to emotion/mood dimensions and regulation in their own right (Greenberg 2004;Mennin 2004). Emotion/mood experiences and processes are also integral to most theories of addiction.…”

“…Like any other body part or system; however, the sensations and processes could not be expected to work perfectly, all the time, no matter what happens. For instance, the literature suggests that some emotional processes could enhance survival for one particular environment associated with their development (e.g., physically/ sexually abusive childhood environments) but they subsequently may not function so well without adjustments for changed environments (e.g., later as adults in less-hostile environments) (Greenberg 2004). Also, emotional processes could be injured, ignored, misinterpreted, distorted (e.g., by psychoactive substances), externally coerced, and so forth.…”