Working with Emotions in Psychotherapy

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 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 and framework for intervention are included, and special attention is given throughout to the integration of emotion and cognition in therapeutic work.