A Guide To Emotions

A comprehensive guide exploring the origins, functions, and experience of emotions, including emotional difficulties.

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A psychoeducational guide. Typically containing elements of skills development.

Overview

Emotions are central to psychological wellbeing, affecting how we view ourselves, relate to others, and respond to events. In therapy, helping clients understand the nature, function, and impact of emotions is important for developing meaningful case conceptualisations and effective treatment plans. This guide introduces clients to key emotional concepts, including what emotions are, how they differ from one another, and the reasons people experience them. It also explores why emotional difficulties arise, how they contribute to mental health issues, and how different therapeutic models make sense of emotional disturbances.

Why Use This Resource?

Many clients struggle with emotions that feel distressing, confusing, or overwhelming. Helping clients understand their emotions - how they work, why they exist, and when they cause difficulties — lays the groundwork for effective intervention and emotional regulation.

This resource helps clients:

Make sense of their emotions using multiple psychological models.
Normalize emotional responses and reduce fear or shame around their emotional experiences.
Recognize problematic emotional cycles operating in their lives.
Understand how difficult emotions can be addressed in therapy.

Key Benefits

Clear

Offers an accessible overview of emotions, including their origins, components, and functions.

Information

Considers evolutionary, biological, and psychological perspectives on emotions.

Engaging

Contains helpful illustrations and relatable examples of emotional challenges.

Broad

Suitable for use with a wide range of presentations, therapy models, and client needs.

Who is this for?

Depression

Helps clients identify and understand low mood.

Anxiety Disorders

Explains emotional arousal and avoidance in generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and panic.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Providing insight into emotional reactivity associated with traumatic experiences.

Eating Disorders

Explores how emotions sometimes drive disordered eating.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Builds awareness and understanding of extreme emotional reactions.

Alexithymia

Help for clients who struggle to identify or describe their emotions.

Integrating it into your practice

Identify

Identify clients who would benefit from learning more about their emotions.

Educate

Use the psychoeducational material to help clients understand their emotions.

Normalize

Use client vignettes to normalize common difficulties with emotions.

Explore

Discuss the different ways emotional difficulties can be addressed in therapy.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Emotions play a crucial role in psychological functioning and mental health, influencing how individuals interpret their experiences, relate to others, and navigate daily life. For this reason, helping clients understand the nature and function of emotions, as well as how they contribute to mental health difficulties, is often important for case formulation and intervention.

Emotions are typically viewed as transient, multidimensional 'episodes' or 'feeling states' that arise in response to internal or external stimuli (Damasio, 1994; Hoffman, 2016; Moors & Scherer, 2013). They encompass cognitive components (thoughts and images linked to an emotion), motivational urges (action tendencies such as fight, flight, or affiliation), physiological responses (changes in arousal), and expressive behaviours (facial expressions, vocal tone). Emotions are also distinct from moods which tend to be longer-lasting and more diffuse.

Emotions serve several adaptive functions. From an evolutionary standpoint, they have been preserved because they offer survival advantages. For instance, fear increases awareness and promotes avoidance of threats, while disgust helps protect against harmful substances. Emotions also play a crucial role in social communication, decision-making, and memory consolidation. Clinically, emotions also serve as indicators of unmet needs, internal conflicts, or problematic cognitive patterns (Beck, 1976; Elliott et al., 2004).

However, emotional systems can become dysregulated. For example, emotional responses may be excessive, prolonged, too frequent, or contextually inappropriate (Gross & Jazaieri, 2014). Such issues may stem from various interconnected factors, including genetic predispositions, traumatic experiences, or attempts to avoid or suppress feelings. Additionally, evolved emotional responses may be mismatched with modern environments, contributing to clinical disorders.

Although emotions feature in many mental health difficulties, the nature of emotional disturbance can vary. For example, anxiety disorders often involve experiencing intense anxiety and/or fear, whereas depression is characterized by reduced positive emotions and a lack of emotional responsiveness (Kring & Bachorowski, 1999). For both therapists and clients, developing a nuanced understanding of emotions can help identify problematic patterns, support treatment planning, and inform appropriate interventions.

This guide is designed to help clients understand emotions and how they relate to common mental health difficulties. Sections include:

What are emotions?
The purpose of emotions.
Why do people sometimes struggle with emotions?
How do therapists make sense of emotional difficulties?

What's inside

Clear explanations of emotions and their components.
Descriptions of primary and secondary emotions.
Evolutionary, neuroscientific, and attachment-based explanations of emotions.
Case vignettes illustrating common emotional difficulties.
Sections on emotion-related difficulties such as emotional avoidance, dysregulation, and alexithymia.
Summaries of how key therapeutic models understand and address emotional difficulties.

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FAQs

Yes, it is designed to complement many approaches, including; cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT); dialectical behavior therapy (DBT); compassion focused therapy (CFT); emotion focused therapy (EFT); eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy; schema therapy; and psychodynamic approaches.

Explain that the guide can help make sense of difficult emotions or a lack of them. It is especially useful when clients are struggling to understand or regulate their feelings.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

This guide enhances therapeutic outcomes by:

Building emotional literacy.
Normalizing emotional difficulties.
Supporting formulation and case conceptualization.
Serving as a foundation for emotion-related interventions.

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References And Further Reading

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Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford Press.
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Basic Books.
Brewin, C. R., Dalgleish, T., & Joseph, S. (1996). A dual representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Review, 103(4), 670–686. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.103.4.670
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
Damasio, A., & Damasio, H. (2006). Minding the body. Daedalus, 135(3), 15-22.
Davidson, R. J. (1998). Affective style and affective disorders: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Cognition and Emotion, 12(3), 307–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999398379628
Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 6(3–4), 169–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939208411068
Frijda, N. H. (1986). The Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
Freud, S. (1957). The unconscious. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 159–215). Hogarth Press.
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Gilbert, P. (2009). The compassionate mind. Constable & Robinson.
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Greenberg, L. S. (2015). Emotion-focused therapy. American Psychological Association.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy. Guilford Press.
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Moors, A., & Scherer, K. R. (2013). The role of appraisal in emotion. idea, 14, 317.
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Plutchik, R. (1980). Emotion: A Psychoevolutionary Synthesis. Harper & Row.
Plutchik, R. (2001). The nature of emotions: Human emotions have deep evolutionary roots, a fact that may explain their complexity and provide tools for clinical practice. American Scientist, 89(4), 344-350.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Houghton Mifflin.
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In N. Eisenberg, W. Damon, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol. 3. Wiley.
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Shapiro, F. (2001). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema therapy. Guilford Press.