Emotion-Focused Therapy

Emotion-focused therapy is an empirically validated brief treatment approach to counseling and psychotherapy. As implicated in the title of this therapy, emotion is considered to be of primary importance and is seen as an organizer of inner experiences and interpersonal relationships. Whereas cognitive and behavioral therapies conceptualize many of the difficulties addressed in counseling as being the result of a lack of skills or faulty assumptive cognitive frameworks, emotion-focused therapy addresses levels of emotional awareness and emotional regulation in resolving life difficulties. The model presumes that the human experience includes universal emotions that cut across cultural groups. These emotions include excitement, joy, anguish, contempt, anger, and fear. A primary goal of emotion-focused treatment is to help participants access and process emotions to construct new ways ...