Emotions as a theoretical construct and as a psychotherapeutic practice. The case for child psychotherapy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33898/rdp.v15i60.748Keywords:
emotions, psychotherapy, children, adolescents, psychotherapist, psychoterapist's reactionsAbstract
Psychotherapy is an “extra-ordinary” field of experience in which the psychotherapist is requested to have the ability to manage emotions in order to enhance the patient’s skills to regulate his or her emotions. This is beyond the ordinary experience because in this kind of setting, it is not only the patients who recall their emotional events happened in the past, requiring the therapist to be empathic, but they also elicit, continuously and frequently, emotional reactions in the psychotherapist, especially in sessions where both are deeply involved. In this kind of deep relationship something happens that is somatic and kinetic and not only cognitive, especially when psychotherapy is applied to children or adolescents. This kind of psychotherapeutic session is a precious occasion to learn how to express, understand, and manage emotions. This article presents some different theories on emotion, which explain in different ways the factors that elicit emotions in everyday life and which processes are involved. The description of psychotherapeutic sessions with three different preadolescents tries to show how the therapist’s concept about the specific model of emotions affects their relationship and enhances Emotional Competence.
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