Emotion Regulation in Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide by Robert L. Leahy & Dennis D. Tirch & Lisa A. Napolitano

Author:Robert L. Leahy & Dennis D. Tirch & Lisa A. Napolitano
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Medical, General, Social Work, Psychiatry, Social Science
ISBN: 9781609184834
Publisher: Guilford Press
Published: 2011-07-21T22:00:00+00:00

acceptance and Willingness

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against your emotions, notice it in this moment. If there are thoughts that intrude, thoughts that you wage war against, bring a gentle awareness to this struggle. For a moment, allow yourself to feel the weight of these struggles, these battles. How long have these armies within you been fighting?

Softening around even this experience, allow yourself to bring an open, compassionate attention to the struggles. Let go of these battles. As you exhale, for a moment allow yourself to feel a complete willingness to be exactly who you are, right here and right now. In this moment, allow yourself to accept the totality of all that life has brought to you and all that you have brought to life. I sn’t it time to stop the war that you have been waging within yourself? Allow yourself again to choose to let this war go. With courage and commitment, allow yourself to fully accept who you are, right here and right now.

Bring part of the attention to the soles of the feet. Next, bring part of the attention to the top of the head. Now, to everything in between. Returning attention to the breathing, simply follow the breath: as you are breathing in knowing that you are breathing in, and as you are breathing out knowing that you are breathing out.

When you are ready, open your eyes and allow yourself to let go of this exercise and resume your day.

Homework

This exercise can be assigned as a daily meditation to be practiced between sessions. This assignment may take place over a week or more. After patients have developed a regular mindfulness practice, they may choose to make this meditation a central aspect of their practice. This is not a goal to aim for, and it is not necessarily the “best” meditation for this purpose. This exercise may also be used in session to help patients make contact with willingness, without it being assigned as homework at all. Form 6.4 (“Stopping the War” Record) can be used by patients to record their daily practice of this exercise.

Possible Problems

Experiential exercises like “Stopping the War” are very different from what many patients might expect to encounter in a psychotherapy session. Some may view this sort of technique as exotic, alien, or even part of a religious tradition that they oppose. The therapist may invite the patient to take part in the exercise as an experiment that will be undertaken in the session together. The therapist may elicit the patient’s negative automatic thoughts and assumptions about “meditation” exercises in session.

Also, the therapist may discover that the patient harbors automatic thoughts regarding being judged by the therapist while undertaking the exercise or fears of embarrassment when engaging in this visualization. The therapist may use a double-standard technique in such cases, asking the patient, for example, “What would you say to a beloved friend if she told you that she was too frightened to engage in this exercise, even in her therapist’s office?” Also, the advantages and disadvantages of engaging in the exercise might be explored.

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