9.2. Outline: Facilitating
Expression of Feelings with Emotional Expression Difficulties: Expression
Stage, Difficulty Markers, and Recommended Therapist Responses
|
Emotional Expression Stage |
Emotional Expression Difficulty Markers |
Therapist Responses (incl. alternate tasks) |
|
1. Prereflective reaction to an emotion eliciting
stimulus |
1. Emotion
blocked from awareness ("I have no feelings.") |
Build alliance and safety; attention to nonverbal communication,
narratives to identify prereflective emotions. Exploratory questions, empathic conjectures |
|
2. Growing conscious awareness and perception of the
reaction |
2. Limited awareness of emotion ("I'm not sure if I'm
feeling something.") |
Focusing; evocative reflections; awareness homework |
|
3. Labeling and interpretation of the affective response |
3a. Unclear feeling ("I don't know what I'm feeling.") 3b. Prepackaged description ("I know what I'm feeling
without having to check.") |
Evocative reflection; Focusing; Systematic Evocative Unfolding
(Chapter 8) |
|
4. Evaluation of whether the response is acceptable
or not |
4. Negative attitude toward emotion ("Feelings are
dangerous or irrelevant.") |
Empathic Exploration of negative attitude (Chapter 5); Two Chair
Enactment (Chapter 10) |
|
5. Evaluation of current context in terms of whether it
is possible or desirable to reveal one’s feelings |
5a. Excessive or inappropriate disclosure to others ("I
don't know why I told them what I was feeling.") 5b. Perception of others as unreceptive ("No one is
interested in what I'm feeling.") |
a. Empathic Exploration of complex or underlying primary
adaptive emotions; Unfolding b. Use Empty Chair work (Chapter 11) |
|
6. Successful, appropriate expression of emotion to
therapist and significant others |
-- |
Explore success |
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