key hopes for this evening

think about what emotions are

introduce a model of ‘positive emotions’

glance at consciousness very briefly consider

implications for therapy

personal background

to help people who are in pain or distress (especially when effective help is not readily available elsewhere) particularly for those with psychological difficulties

to try to provide & encourage a whole person approach that uses what’s best in conventional, complementary, and self-help methods of health care

work through a small charity whose aims are:

for more details & a downloadable copy of this talk go to the ‘goodknowledge’ section of www.goodmedicine.org.uk click on ‘lecturesand leaflets’ and look under ‘emotional expression’ in ‘past lectures’

some sources of inspiration Damasio A. Descartes’ error: emotion, reason and

the human brain. London: Papermac, 1996 Gendlin E. Focusing-oriented psychotherapy: a

manual of the experiential method. New York: Guilford, 1996

Kennedy-Moore E & Watson J. Expressing emotion: myths, realities, & therapeutic strategies. New York: Guilford, 1999

Damasio A. The feeling of what happens: body, emotion and the making of consciousness. London: Vintage, 2000

Lepore S. & Smyth J. The writing cure: how expressive writing promotes health and emotional well-being. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2002

Greenberg L. Emotion-focused therapy: coaching clients to work through their feelings. Washington: APA, 2002

key hopes for this evening

think about what emotions are what are they? what do they do? why do we have

them?

theoretical maps are crucial

“there is nothing so practical as a good

theory”

kurt lewin:‘founder’ of american

social psychology

clients may well rate new understanding as one of the most important aspects of therapyButler G et al Anxiety management: developing effective strategies Behav Res Ther 1987;25:517-22

“it is the theory which decides what we can

observe”

albert einstein:in debate

with heisenberg

what are emotions & feelings?

internal feelings

physiological reactions

reflection

external observ-able responses

adapted from: Kennedy-

Moore E & Watson J. Expressing emotion: myths, realities, and

therapeutic strategies.

New York: Guilford Press, 1999.

types of emotion & feeling

six primary/universal emotions happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust secondary/social emotions e.g. pride, jealousy, guilt, shame, embarrassment background emotions

e.g. excitement, energy/fatigue, wellness/sickness, harmony/discord, relaxation/tension, stability/instability, balance/imbalance

moods, drives & motivationsmoods are made up of modulated & sustained primary, secondary or background emotions; drives & motivations express themselves and are detectable through background emotions

the following classification system is from: Damasio A. The feeling of what happens. London:

Vintage, 2000

what do emotions do?

prepare the body-mind for “appropriate” action

heart rate, blood flow, hormones, & also changes in memory, thinking, etc

provide information on how situation is assessed

noting & interpreting the feelings

send out signals to others posture, voice tone, facial expression,

speed of movement send signals to others about self and assessment of environment

what do emotions do?prepare an individual for ”appropriate” action, emotions produce major changes in the body:

1. the “body loop” changes the landscape of the body – heart, lungs, blood distribution, muscles, viscera, etc – via both chemical messages in the blood stream and electrochemical messages in nerve pathways.

2. the “as if body loop” changes the representation of the body directly in sensory body maps in the brain. It is “as if” the body had been changed although the changes haven’t actually occurred in the body itself. Damasio A. The feeling of what happens. London: Vintage, 2000

what do emotions do?

prepare an individual for ”appropriate” action, emotions produce major changes in the brain:

1. induction of specific behaviours such as those aimed at generating bonding, nurturing, exploring & playing.

2. changes in how signals from the body are processed such as selective filtering, inhibition, enhancement, & alteration of quality of pleasantness/unpleasantness.

3. changes in cognitive processing involving shifts in rate of production (slow to fast) and quality of focus (sharp to vague) of auditory and visual images

theoretical maps are crucial

it may be more helpful to think of humans as having many ‘minds’ rather than

just one

john teasdale:

cambridge psychologist

these different mind-body states are linked to different emotions, different

body landscapes, different ways of thinking, different access to memories,

and different behaviours

‘body-mind as house’ model

it’s easiest to recognize the different ‘rooms’ by noticing the different characteristic emotions they are linked to

all human beings have much the same set of emotional mind-body ‘rooms’ in our ‘houses’

all the rooms are there because, in the appropriate situation, being in the room promotes survival

when we’re in one room, it’s hard to remember there are any other rooms in the house – feelings/thoughts/memories

problems arise when we get stuck in inappropriate rooms

humans are like houses with different rooms which represent our different mind-body

states

key hopes for this evening

think about what emotions are what are they?what do they do? why do we have

them?

why do we have emotions?

“in the wilderness in which the human racedeveloped its current genetic characteristics,

individuals who had the capacity to respond todangerous or otherwise significant circumstances

with an adequate set of emotions, and actedaccordingly, had a better chance to survive, to

have children, and to raise them than indiv-iduals who were deficient in that respect”

Gut, E. Productive & unproductive depression. London: Routledge, 1989

emotions can help us survive & thrive:

examples of emotional functions

anxiety can serve an individual by making them hypervigilant - ready to run or freezeand it also alerts others to possible danger

anger can help an individual act rapidly to defend themselves when their territory is invaded & it serves to frighten others away

depression can occur when our movementtowards a major goal is blocked - it causes us to pause, re-evaluate and change direction

‘body-mind as radar’ model

the body-mind is like a radar & rapid response system constantly assessing whether the

outer & inner environments are favourable or unfavourable

emotions (like a constant wash of changing colours) are the ‘readings’ from this radar & rapid

response system

the emotional radar system is ‘quick & dirty’ triggering rapid responses that may be accurate,

adaptive & possibly life-saving or inaccurate & unhelpful

key hopes for this evening

think about what emotions are

introduce a model of ‘positive emotions’

glance at consciousness very briefly consider

implications for therapy

what about ‘positive’ emotions?

Fredrickson, B. L. What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology 1998;2:300-319.

Fredrickson, B.L. et al. Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and wellbeing. Prevention & Treatment 2000 (a web-based APA journal available at http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/toc-mar07-00.html

Fredrickson, B. L. The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Am Psychol 2001;56:218-26.

Fredrickson, B. L. & Joiner, T. Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychol Sci 2002;13:172-5.

Fredrickson, B.L. The value of positive emotions. American Sci 2003;91:330-5.

Fredrickson, B. L. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2004;359:1367-78.

Tugade, M. M. & Fredrickson, B. L. Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. J Pers Soc Psychol 2004;86:320-33.

Barbara Fredrickson’s ‘broaden-and-build’ model

what about ‘positive’ emotions?

emotions such as joy, contentment, gratitude & love

‘negative’ emotions narrow the thought-action repertoire to solve problems of

immediate survival ‘positive’ emotions broaden the thought-

action repertoire to build resources for future survival

feeling good promotes flexible, integrative thinking; relationship building; exploration; &

skill development

consciousness as evolutionary step

Antonio Damasio The feeling of what happens: body, emotion and the making of consciousness London:

Vintage, 2000

evolution of consciousness – major survival advantagegoing beyond non-conscious reflexes & conditioning

changes in the body’s internal

environment are monitored

by basic brain stem structures

making up the ‘proto-self’

a major leap forward occurs when an organism develops the capacity to

recognize that responses are ‘mine’

stimulus

consciousness

response

core consciousness is the ‘feeling of what happens’

when we see, hear or touch

three levels of being

extended consciousness & autobiographical self

core consciousness & present time core self

unconscious biological state & the proto self

key hopes for this evening

think about what emotions are

introduce a model of ‘positive emotions’

glance at consciousness very briefly consider

implications for therapy

possible implications for therapy

clients frequently come because they are unhappy with their emotional state – emotions are at the heart of therapy.

working with the client to construct maps & models of what has been happening is often very therapeutic.

becoming clearer what a client is feeling is a crucial aspect of therapy (‘arriving’).

what one does with the feeling (‘leaving’) depends on whether or not the underlying emotion seems ‘adaptive’.

try to use ‘adaptive’ emotions – including ‘positive emotions’ – to fuel constructive action.

therapy aims to help process ‘non-adaptive’ emotions.

some of the many possible implications