ABSTRACT
It is impossible to address the subject of emotions in one chapter. Discussing a general conceptual framework for emotions, their relationship to cognitions, methods of working with emotions in treatment, and providing a comprehensive overview of specific emotions are daunting. In Chapter 10, we described Ekman’s six primary emotions. There are, however, literally thousands of gradations and combinations of emotions that human beings experience. As a result, we will not attempt to categorize or catalogue the entire range of human emotions.1 There are specific emotions, however, that clients commonly present that require clinical attention, which we will address before discussing therapeutic methods for working with emotions. They are fear/anxiety and sadness/depression. We will discuss the structural elements of each emotion (expressions of affect, internal feelings, and emotional states), as well as briefly discuss the relationship to schema dynamics and the impact on the appraisal process.
