The study of psychotherapy has often been limited to the ways in which cognitive and behavioral processes promote personal change. Introducing a ground breaking perspective, Greenberg and Safran's compelling new work argues that the presently-felt experience of emotional material in therapy forms a vital underpinning in the generation of change. By including emotion as a psychotherapeutic catalyst, the book offers a more complete and encompassing approach to the process of psychotherapy than has ever before been available. EMOTION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY draws from the literature of both clinical and experimental psychology to provide a critical review of theory and research on the role of emotion in the process of change. Providing a general theoretical framework for understanding the impact of affect in therapy, this unique volume describes specific change events in which emotions enhance the achievement of therapeutic goals. Case examples and extensive transcripts vividly portray a variety of affective modes--such as completing emotional expression, accessing previously unacknowledged feelings, and restructuring emotions--and illustrate in clear, practical terms how certain processes apply to particular patient problems. Moving beyond the standard approaches to therapy, this volume offers an integrated approach that carefully consider's the client's state in the session that must be amenable to intervention as well as any given intervention and its resulting changes. Its attention to both the theoretical and practical considerations of implementing a balanced psychotherapeutic approach--combining behavioral, cognitive, and affective modes--makes this an invaluable volume for practitioners and researchers of all orientations. The book will be of particular interest to clinicians seeking integrative approaches to psychotherapy, and to academic psychologists concerned with expanding the paradigm of cognitive psychology.

EMOTION, PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND CHANGE represents a systematic attempt to map the various ways emotion influences the change process and to clarify the underlying mechanisms. A continuation of the editors' pioneering work, EMOTION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, this volume makes a significant contribution to the development of a transtheoretical approach to affective change events. Viewing emotional experience as an active ingredient in, rather than a by-product of, the change process, the book explores the ramifications of this understanding for the conduct of therapy. A thorough review of the theory and therapeutic implications of emotion in human functioning precedes chapters by representatives of three different therapeutic traditions: cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and experiential. Contributors identify and describe the key affective change events important in their respective approaches and then speculate about the underlying processes. Included here are detailed descriptions of relevant therapist-client interactions as well as clinical transcripts that vividly illustrate the process of change. A separate, theory-oriented commentary section follows in which the theme of emotion in psychotherapy is examined from the perspectives of cognitive psychology and emotion theory. A synthesis and critical analysis of affective change processes rounds out the volume. EMOTION, PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND CHANGE satisfies its practical and theoretical objectives by providing detailed descriptions of intervention strategies while explicating how and why these interventions work. Its attention to both theory and practice, and its synthesis of different theoretical traditions, make this volume essential reading for seasoned psychotherapists, researchers, and students.

In previous books, Leslie S. Greenberg has demonstrated the importance of integrating emotional work into therapy and has laid out a compelling model of therapeutic change. Building on these foundations, WORKING WITH EMOTIONS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY sheds new light on the process and technique of intervention with specific emotions. Filled with illustrative case examples, 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. 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 and framework for intervention are delineated, and special attention is given throughout to the integration of emotion and cognition in therapeutic work.

Using an experiential therapy framework, the authors show how to work with moment-by-moment emotional processes to resolve various psychological difficulties.

This book presents principles and methods for working with emotion in psychotherapy to address the core maladaptive processes that cause anxiety, depression, and other common mental health disorders. Mental health providers confront emotional suffering every day, yet working with emotion is rarely explicitly taught in most clinical graduate programs. There is evidence that emotional experience in therapy relates to therapy outcome, across multiple diagnoses. This research has given rise to strategies that address the core maladaptive processes that cause distress and dysfunction, rather than specific diagnoses. Methods described in this book can help clients with all types of disorders to "arrive at," or fully experience, their painful maladaptive emotions, and then "leave" these emotions by accessing new, adaptive emotions. These methods include helping clients sit with painful feelings, access bodily felt experience, identify unmet needs, and articulate the meaning of an emotion. Excerpts from moment-to-moment clinical dialogues help demonstrate techniques such as memory reconsolidation, providing corrective emotional experiences, chair work, and imaginal re-entry to past situations.

The question ‘how far can emotions be changed?’ lies at the heart of innumerable psychological interventions. Although often viewed as static, changes in the intensity, quality, and complexity of emotion can occur from moment to moment, and also over longer periods of time, often as a result of developmental, social or cultural factors. Changing Emotions highlights several recent developments in this intriguing domain, and provides a comprehensive guide for understanding how and why emotions change. The chapters are organized into five parts: • Lifespan Perspective • Learning Perspective • Social-Cultural Perspective • Emotional-Dynamics Perspective • Intervention Perspective. In each chapter an internationally renowned scholar presents a concise review of key findings from their own research perspective. The book will be of great interest to researchers in the area of emotion and emotion regulation as well as related fields such as developmental psychology, educational psychology, social, clinical psychology and psychotherapy. It may also be of interest to sociologists, philosophers, and economists interested in learning more about emotions.

"In Learning Process-Experiential Therapy: The Process-Experiential Approach to Change, the originators of process-experiential therapy describe in detail the various tasks and techniques of this theoretically grounded, empirically supported humanistic therapy, while emphasizing the importance of the therapeutic relationship. The authors, Robert Elliott, Jeanne C. Watson, Rhonda N. Goldman, and Leslie S. Greenberg, well-respected scholars and leading figures in the field, discuss theory, case formulation, treatment, and research in a way that makes this complex form of therapy accessible to all readers. Particularly valuable are their careful moment-to-moment exchanges in extended case examples, which show the reader how deliberate and skillful use of these techniques can bring about change. This informative book will be of great practical value to therapists and students learning process-experiential therapy as well as to those who teach this mode of psychotherapy."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved