Theory of practice of emotion-focused therapy.

Abstract

In this chapter, we present the theory of practice of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for individuals. First, we review some general issues in working with emotion, then we discuss the importance of emotion assessment. This is followed by an elaboration of principles of emotional change with the focus on individual therapy. The theory of practice in couples therapy is presented in Chapters 20, 21, and 22. WORKING WITH EMOTION IN PSYCHOTHERAPYEFT is designed to help clients become aware of and make productive use of their emotions. The goal is to enhance emotional processing. This is achieved by helping clients better identify, experience, accept, tolerate, regulate, explore, make sense of, transform, and flexibly manage their emotions. As a result, clients become more skilled in experiencing emotion and 3

Emotional processing and therapeutic change in depression: A case study.

“…As the levels of emotional processing increased throughout Elizabeth’s case, we observed a transformation from maladaptive Guilt/Shame (Sessions 1–4) to maladaptive Anger, adaptive Sadness (Session 5), and finally to adaptive Anger and Joy (Sessions 6–16). This change from maladaptive to more adaptive emotions seems to be largely consistent with the theoretical sequence of the emotional change proposed by Greenberg (2010).…”

“…Once activated, depressive emotional schemes automatically produce maladaptive emotional responses to situations, impairing the person’s ability to process painful emotions (Greenberg & Watson, 2006). The therapeutic change involves promoting the client’s capability to process their emotions, that is, to be aware, to experience and make meaning of such emotions, and to transform the underlying emotional scheme into a more adaptive one (Elliott et al, 2013; Greenberg, 2010; Pos, Greenberg, Goldman, & Korman, 2003). In this sense, emotions are a source of information that needs to be explored to create new meaning and change the maladaptive emotional experiences (Greenberg, 2010; Greenberg & Watson, 2006).…”

“…For humanistic–experiential approaches, the transformation of the emotional scheme is the ultimate stage on the continuum of emotional processing. The increase in the clients’ capability to process their emotions contributes to transforming the depressive emotional scheme, resulting in the emergence of new and more adaptive emotional responses to daily situations (Greenberg, 2010; Greenberg & Watson, 2006).…”

Developing Emotional Skills and the Therapeutic Alliance in Clients with Alexithymia: Intervention Guidelines

“…Empathy also facilitates exploration, promotes openness to experience, and a curious attitude toward emotional experience, while enabling the deconstruction of assumptions and values. Empathy assists clients with self-reflection [76, 77], which may be extremely important with alexithymic patients since it can work as a corrective emotional experience. A corrective emotional experience requires protected circumstances, empathy, and awareness from the therapist.…”

Opening Up: Clients’ Inner Struggles in the Initial Phase of Therapy

“…Emotion oriented orientations have both commonalities and differences in what is considered particularly important when working with emotions in session. For example, Psychodynamic therapies recognize in-depth emotional exploration as essential ( Diener et al, 2007 ; Subic-Wrana et al, 2016 ), contemporary third-wave Cognitive-behavioral therapies emphasize awareness and acceptance of emotions ( Sloan and Kring, 2007 ), and Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) argues that clients need to get in touch with their core maladaptive emotional states to be able to transform them ( Greenberg and Goldman, 2019 ).…”