Robert L. Leahy
American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, NYC, USA

TWO-HOUR WEBINAR - 12.10.19

Much of CBT has focused on helping individuals get rid of unpleasant emotions - especially anxiety, sadness, and anger. But a life worth living often involves experiencing unpleasant emotions that are often complex emotions. Emotional
Schema Therapy emphasizes that all emotions evolved because they were adaptive - including emotions that we are often told we should not have. These include jealousy, envy, ambivalence, boredom and regret. In addition, many of us struggle with Emotional Perfectionism and Existential Perfectionism-that is, the belief that we should feel good and that our lives should follow certain expectations that we have.
But real life is filled with disappointments, loss, unfairness, and even betrayal. Just as people with OCD struggle with unwanted intrusive thoughts or people who ruminate look for “The Answer”, we often struggle to rid ourselves of unwanted feelings. In this presentation I describe a model of emotional inclusiveness, containment of unpleasant emotions, normalization of “the abnormal”, and the use of these emotions to differentiate the values and meanings that we have. I describe both the biological and the social constructivist models of emotions, recognizing that at different times in history and in different cultures people had different theories and evaluations of emotions. Of particular focus in this presentation is the role of jealousy, envy and ambivalence, problematic emotion theories and responses and possibly helpful strategies about how to cope with these inevitable and sometimes difficult experiences. Finally, I describe strategies for deepening meaning without avoiding the unpleasant emotions often associated with finding meaning