Working with emotions in psychotherapy

The book shows clinicians how to identify a given emotion, discern its role in a client's self-understanding, and understand how its expression is furthering or inhibiting the client's progress toward the goals of therapy. Of vital importance, the authors help readers think more differentially about emotions; to distinguish, for example, between avoided emotional pain and chronic dysfunctional bad feelings, between adaptive sadness and maladaptive depression, and between overcontrolled anger and underregulated rage. A conceptual overview, intervention guidelines, and a wealth of case illustrative case examples are included, and special attention is given throughout to the integration of emotion and cognition in therapeutic work. Shedding new light on the power of emotions - both in organizing clients' experience and in facilitating self-understanding and change - this book helps novice and experienced therapists to harness that power insightfully and creatively in their work. It may also serve as supplementary reading in advanced undergraduate and graduate-level psychotherapy courses.