Fundamental human emotions like fear, sadness, anger, and shame underlie psychological problems but are also the key to healing and growth. Experiential and emotion-focused interventions have a rich background in humanistic and existential approaches like gestalt and person-centered therapies. When we help our clients embrace more adaptive emotions, we reduce suffering and enhance human potential. This seminar will teach both experiential conceptualization and intervention methods. Formulating an emotion-based conceptualization involves distinguishing between primary, secondary, and instrumental emotions. Exploration can help distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive emotions. Diversity is addressed in this webinar by describing the way cultural contexts shape clients’ emotional experiences.
Video demonstrations of foundational experiential skills drawn from Emotion-Focused Therapy will be used to help participants prepare for practice. These skills will address three general processes: (1) Exploration and functional analysis of current patterns, (2) Guided discovery to uncover more adaptive functioning, and (3) Enacting adaptation outside of psychotherapy. More advanced experiential interventions—like chair work and focusing—will be previewed as possibilities for future professional development.
Although emotional transformation is often an essential part of treatment, there are time when emotions cannot be changed. Many people use experiential avoidance and defense mechanisms to evade uncomfortable emotions. When emotions cannot be changed, it is important to help clients accept difficult parts of the human experience and to increase distress tolerance and emotional regulation. This seminar will prepare psychotherapists to discuss with clients when to emphasize acceptance of emotions and when to promote change.
This webinar is part of Level One of Training in Unified Psychotherapy (TUP), focusing on working interactively with cognition, emotion, and behavior. Instead of exclusively focusing on emotion as a lever of change, TUP encourages psychotherapists to develop a wide repertoire of skills that can be adapted to the individual needs of each client.
