The Emotion Mapping Activity: Preliminary evaluation of a mindfulness‐informed exercise to improve emotion labeling in alexithymic persons

Abstract

Alexithymia is a psychoemotional trait associated with many treatment-resistant psychological and social difficulties. Research suggests that these difficulties stem primarily from an inability to appropriately apply linguistic labels to emotional experiences and content. The present research introduces and preliminarily evaluates a novel mindfulness-informed exercise to improve emotion-labeling ability in alexithymic persons. Based in culturally universal patterns of somatic experience, the Emotion Mapping Activity (EMA) directs alexithymic persons to reflect on their internal, somatic experiences as a source of information for interpreting and labeling emotional experiences. In the present study, 67 alexithymic persons completed a series of emotion-labeling tasks either with or without assistance of the EMA. Results suggest that completion of the EMA may improve ability to label emotions that would be otherwise misinterpreted - without interfering with labeling that is already intact. Though further research is necessary, the present study suggests that the EMA may hold the potential to be incorporated into psychotherapy protocols as an exercise for improving emotion-labeling ability in alexithymic clients.

Quadratic Relationship Between Alexithymia and Interoceptive Accuracy, and Results From a Pilot Mindfulness Intervention

“…For example, a recent study developed a novel body mapping intervention program, in which participants received education about affect and physiology, underwent guided emotion-focused body scan meditations, and completed digital mapping exersizes, visually depicting experienced emotions. When compared to a control condition of a body scan meditation alone, body mapping resulted in more precise and complex affect labeling, even in individuals with heightened alexithymia (34). Interactive and educational interventions may be superior to more passive, body scan meditations, such as that used in the current study, in improving affective labeling.…”

“…Interactive and educational interventions may be superior to more passive, body scan meditations, such as that used in the current study, in improving affective labeling. Prior literature demonstrates the malleability of affect labeling and emotional granularity (31,34), and additional research is needed to continue investigating effective methods of improving emotional awareness in the context of elevated alexithymia.…”

Posttraumatic stress and alexithymia: A meta-analysis of presentation and severity.

“…Given the severity of difficulties in identifying feelings among persons with PTSD and the notable association between difficulties in identifying feelings and posttraumatic stress, interventions specifically designed to support emotion labeling may be particularly helpful. For example, the Emotion Mapping Activity utilizes mindfulness-based techniques to support alexithymic persons in accurately labeling emotional experiences by attending to somatic sensations (Edwards et al, 2018).…”

“…Given the observed associations between PTSD/posttraumatic stress and alexithymia, ongoing development of treatments for posttraumatic stress may benefit from consideration of the alexithymia literature. For example, emotion-focused interventions have demonstrated good results with alexithymic clients (e.g., Baker et al, 2012; Cloitre, Koenen, Cohen, & Han, 2002; Edwards, Shivaji, & Wupperman, 2018). Consistent with this, some evidence suggests that when emotion-focused interventions are integrated into treatment for trauma-related symptoms, improvements in alexithymia are closely associated with improvements in trauma-related symptoms across the course of treatment (Cloitre et al, 2002; Zorzella, Muller, Cribbie, Bambrah, & Classen, 2019).…”

The psychometric assessment of alexithymia: Development and validation of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire

“…19 Pending validation in clinical populations, such profiles could, in effect, help researchers and clinicians to better conceptualise and treat those clinical presentations characterised by emotion processing deficits. Patients reporting high levels of alexithymia on the PAQ are, for instance, likely to be good candidates for psychotherapeutic interventions (e.g., Edwards, Shivaji, & Wupperman, 2018;Neumann et al, 2017) that are designed to develop emotion schemas and reduce usage of experiential avoidance as an emotion regulation strategy (Preece et al, 2017).…”