Emotion Focused Therapy
We need full access to our emotions to function well. Learn about the importance of emotions and how they work here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJOjpprbfeE
Emotion Focused Therapy is a well researched and proven approach that has much in common with Mindfulness.
Our senses are constantly communicating information to us about our environment and the situations we are in. Emotions are the interface between our body and our mind. They are the way in which our body (senses) tell our mind what’s going on and more importantly, what needs to happen. We feel them immediately when our senses communicate to us (via the amygdala) that a situation we are in requires immediate action – for example:
- Fear prepares us for escape
- Anger facilitates boundary management & assists us in tackling obstacles
Other emotions serve a purpose as well:
- Happiness/Love enhances co-operation
- Sadness makes us withdraw to heal or seek help
- Shame and guilt are social regulators
You could say our survival depends on it.
Sometimes the emotional templates we form to help speed up our readiness for sticky situations don’t quite fit the requirements of our actual situations.
In these sittuations no amount of “common sense” thinking seems to help. Not in any lasting way.
Many approaches work on trying to change the behaviours and thoughts that don’t fit situations or control overwhelming emotions when they don’t seem “rational”. This can be very effective for some in helping us manage in the short term.
Emotionally focused therapy works with the emotions that energise our handling of situations. Working with the principle that you must first get to a place before you can leave it, emotionally focused therapists aim to access the underlying experience and harness the power emotional information holds.
In doing so, we are able to process the experience in a way that allows new meaning to emerge and bring about lasting change.
