ABSTRACT
This chapter corresponds to Session 3 of Emotion Regulation Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders. In this session, the therapist reviews with the client the topic of high-risk drinking situations and continues to identify the client’s personal high-risk situations. Education regarding the role of maladaptive coping strategies for managing emotions such as suppression, avoidance and escape, and the advantages of adaptive strategies that involve engaging with uncomfortable emotions and cravings or urges to drink alcohol is presented and discussed. Next, the relationship of unpleasant emotions to alcohol consumption is discussed and the following skills are introduced: Mindful Observation of emotion and craving responses (“Watch the Wave”), Mindful Breathing, and labeling emotions. These skills focus on building awareness, decreasing reactivity, and providing strategies for managing and regulating emotions and urges to drink. An in-session Mindful Breathing exercise is conducted and between-session skill practice is assigned.
