Interview with Sonia Galarza: the importance of emotions in therapy

For a long time, rationality has been the characteristic that we tend to emphasize when we compare our species with others. other forms of animal life: the human being is the only one capable of, at the same time, developing highly abstract thoughts, living in complex societies of millions of individuals, create plans for the future years ahead, and communicate through sophisticated use of the idioms.

However, it cannot be ignored that a large part of what happens to us, and the way in which we experience life, basically depends on our emotions. In fact, there are many occasions when we find that our emotional side is several steps ahead of our more intellectual "I". Let us think, for example, of the cases in which we postpone a visit to the dentist so as not to have to face that experience even though Objectively, the best option is to go as soon as possible, or the cases in which we continue to pay the gym fee despite the fact that we hardly come on.

All this is not accidental: emotions have great organizing power when it comes to developing habits and behavior patterns, and that is why, in part, any psychotherapy process must be carried out taking into account this emotional side of being. human.

We will talk about this topic in today's interview, in which we have the psychologist Sonia Galarza.

• Related article: "Are we rational or emotional beings?"

Interview with Sonia Galarza: why emotions are essential in psychotherapy

Sonia Galarza Valles She is a General Health Psychologist and runs the Psicocrea psychological assistance center, located in Valencia. There she cares for patients of all ages putting into practice an experience accumulated over two decades. In this interview she will talk to us about the role that emotions play in the psychotherapy process, both in relation to the problem to to treat and in the advances towards the goal to be achieved, as in relation to the therapeutic relationship established by the professionals and their patients.

Sadness and anxiety are often talked about as if they were psychological phenomena to be avoided. Many people may even believe that they need to go to psychotherapy because these emotions are a problem that overwhelms them. To what extent can one speak of harmful emotions for the person?

Emotions by themselves are not harmful to the person, as long as they are managed properly. Managing emotions effectively will depend, to a large extent, on our emotional self-knowledge, as well as knowledge about the emotions of others. In addition, emotions are a source of information about ourselves and about the influence of the environment on our psychological and behavioral functioning.

However, the effective management of emotions can be complicated for some people, especially when we talk about emotions with a negative connotation such as sadness, anxiety or anger.

These types of emotions that we usually classify as "harmful" are only indicating that there is some matter of our mental functioning or the environment that we must attend to.

Also the emotions that we classify as "positive" are a source of information about us and the exterior. On some occasions, positive emotions are also treated in therapy, for example, when they are exaggerated or do not correspond to reality.

We can therefore say that emotions, whether positive or negative, are useful in our functioning. psychological and in our relationship with other people, and that all of them are healthy when they are conducted in a adequate.

Some people may come to therapy for the first time after spending a long time trying to completely suppress and eliminate emotions that they find problematic. How do you help them reconcile with them?

When people come to therapy, it is very common for them to be focused on a very rational level, trying to give logical explanations for their problems, but without considering the associated emotional aspects, or taking them into account only partially.

Patients often have difficulty identifying and naming their own emotions, which would be the first step in managing them effectively. Some patients are more aware of what their emotions are, but often they remain stuck in the emotional world and find it difficult to take into account emotional aspects and rational.

With the aim of helping patients in their first contact with the emotional world, training is carried out in the identification of the emotions that are associated with their daily events, such as couple or family conflicts, or as situations of anxiety or decay.

Working with emotions is not a subject that is carried out in isolation, but is present in any therapeutic intervention, whether with couples, families or individually. Nor is it exclusive to a particular stage of development. People of all ages can benefit from learning strategies for emotional management.

How does a psychologist help a patient to develop her capacity for self-knowledge in relation to the way of living her feelings and emotions?

Through identification with emotions, patients significantly increase their self-awareness, often discovering that emotions are present in their day-to-day that they do not they were aware. In addition, when dealing with emotions, it is very important to review and train communication, and especially non-verbal and paraverbal communication, which are closely linked to feelings and emotions.

We also work on empathy, which includes identification with other people's emotions. Patients realize that judgments about the behaviors of others depend largely on measure of your own ability to assess the problem from the emotional point of view of the other person. This happens very frequently in couple relationships and in relationships. family problems. But we can also observe it in work relationships or with friends, because the way we behave in any personal relationship is strongly influenced by the emotional level of the people that make up the relationship.

The ultimate goal of addressing emotions is for them to be channeled and modulated so that they fulfill their role effectively. The way to channel each of the emotions will depend on the type of emotion and the problem with which it is linked. We work on emotions from a cognitive-behavioral perspective, relating them to the thoughts and behaviors with which they are associated.

In my practice, we also see emotions from a humanistic perspective, which is more introspective. However, there are emotions that are very disruptive, such as anger, which in case of causing problems serious with oneself or with others, they are also addressed in a more directive way, with behavioral guidelines concrete.

Bearing in mind that psychotherapy is a process that requires commitment and perseverance, how do you facilitates patients to take advantage of their own emotions to enhance self-motivation in this sense?

There is a moment when patients see the relationship between their emotional level and their behavioral and thinking levels. At this point in therapy, patients begin to realize that they can change the way they perceive events. problems, not only through reasoning but also through emotional self-knowledge and the correct management of their emotions. From this point on, a significant improvement is observed in the patients' ability to self-motivate.

In this advance it is important to have developed the ability to postpone gratification, channeling those emotions that can boycott our achievements. In this way it is more likely to achieve the desired achievements, which will increase our feeling of personal self-efficacy. This feeling of personal self-efficacy once again influences our ability to self-motivate. Of course, the capacity for self-motivation affects all levels of life, not just motivation related to therapy and a commitment to it.

Therefore, it can be said that the motivation to continue attending therapy arises more strongly when patients realize realize the potential of connecting with your own emotions and having tools to direct them towards a goal of growth. In order for this objective to be achieved as soon as possible, we begin to work on emotions from the beginning of the therapeutic intervention, whatever the problem addressed.

In what way do emotions influence when creating the therapeutic relationship between professional and patient?

All personal relationships are mediated by emotions and the relationship between therapist and patient is no exception. It is important that the patient and the therapist connect on an emotional level, creating a climate of minimal initial trust, necessary for both to feel comfortable in the sessions.

As the sessions progress, the level of trust must increase, as well as the level of empathy, especially on the part of the therapist, that he must connect emotionally with his patients to provide constant feedback about their management of the emotions. In this way, the therapist will help to identify the emotions that the patient has difficulty recognizing on his own.

Lastly, any negative emotions between the therapist and the patient, which may arise during the course of the sessions, must be addressed in therapy so that it can continue successfully.

Finally... do you think that the influence of rationality on human behavior is usually overestimated?

Culturally we are conditioned to face problems in a very rational way. There are people who know that emotions exist and know how to name them, but have great difficulty identifying them in themselves and sometimes also in others.

If we do not take emotions into account and only consider the rational aspects, the emotional level will continue to act, but without our conscious permission, that is, out of control. Therefore, not taking emotional issues into account and leaving everything in the hands of rationality can lead us to worsen problems instead of solving them.

It is very frequent that I have to insist to patients that we must make an effort to deal with the issue emotional, since they often do not believe that their mental stability is so conditioned by the things that feel. In these cases, I try to convey that we do not intend to leave aside the rational aspect, since we need to find an explanation for those issues that worry us or that bother us. But this does not imply ignoring or minimizing the emotional aspects.

We have been trained from childhood to be logical and rational beings. This implies that we have acquired very entrenched habits that push us to solve problems with logic and reasoning, without taking into account the emotional level. Modifying this established trend usually requires an extra effort, since the will to improve is usually not enough. Therapeutic work with emotions gives us the opportunity to know and put into practice new strategies to face our reality, giving emotional issues the importance they require.