2.4.4. Exercise: Understanding Emotion Regulation
Problems
Below are listed problems that three different clients said they
wanted to work on in Process-Experiential therapy. Study them for evidence of emotion regulation
difficulties. Which problems sound
related to under-arousal or excessive self-containment of emotion? Which problems seem to involve
over-arousal or excessive accessing of emotion schemes? Which problems might involve both
under- and over-arousal?
Client
A:
•I’m
very cynical about the world, more negative than I have been.
•I
feel like there’s something unresolved about my family members’ deaths.
•I
don’t enjoy my family as much as I’d like to.
•I’ve
lost interest in sex.
Client
B:
•I
have trouble standing up for myself.
•I
often worry about financial troubles.
•I
have trouble making decisions.
•I
sometimes feel depressed.
Client
C:
•I feel like I’m on an emotional roller coaster, always on my way
up or down, never balanced.
•I
can’t deal with a setback without drifting into depression.
•I
have very little trust for very few people.
•I
feel like I’m alone in a sea of people.
Materials designed to
accompany the book Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy: The
Process-Experiential Approach to Change from APA Books.
©2003 Robert Elliott, Jeanne Watson, Rhonda Goldman, and Leslie Greenberg
http://www.process-experiential.org/learning