Emotions as an Opportunity for Growth

Therapy can provide us with the opportunity to use our emotions to create new corrective experiences and interactions. The challenge in therapy is how to move from an intellectual appreciation of a truth about oneself to an emotional experience of it.  It is only when we activate or get in touch with our deep emotions that they can become a powerful force for change. 

The main function of our emotions is to communicate our needs, motives and priorities both to ourselves and to others. When we are not in tune with our emotions it is like navigating life without a compass.  

To change our emotional responses we have to be in a space where we can access our emotions and feel safe to feel them.  When we feel them, then we have to tolerate them, understand them and ultimately choose to change our reactions or numbed suppression of our emotions.  With the process of therapy, we can explore switching from an automatic emotional response to awareness of what we are experiencing and why.  

In these powerful moments, fears are faced, needs are expressed and old automatic ways of regulating our emotions and perceiving others are allowed to emerge.  This is called a “corrective emotional experience”.  

Our emotions are a major source and vehicle for change.  When we can put our emotions into words, understanding our experience of our emotions then we are less likely to use negative ways to manage or regulate these emotions such as:  aggression, self-injury, numbing, or excessive damaging behaviors.  We generally suffer from less-severe anxiety and depression.  

Emotion regulation plays a critical role in our mental health.  Suppression, rumination, and avoidance are associated with anxiety and depression, while acceptance and the ability to counter habitual and negative interpretations of events (reappraisal) lead to a sense of emotional balance.

References:

Yalom, I. (1989).  Love’s excucutioner.  New York: Basic Books.

Bowlby, J. (1991). Postscript. In C.M. Parkes, J. Stevenson-Hinde, & P. Marris (Eds.), Attachment across the lifespan. New York: Routledge.

Johnson, S.M. (2009). Extravagant emotion: Understanding and transforming love relationships in emotionally focused therapy. In D. Fosha, D. Siegel, & M. Solomon (Eds.), The healing power of emotion: Affective neuroscience, development and clinical practice. New York: Norton.

Johnson, S.M. (2019). Attachment theory in practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Individuals, Couples and Families. The Guilford Press. New York: London

Mennin, D.S., & Farach, F. (2007). Emotion and evolving treatments for adult psychopathology. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice