ABSTRACT

A focus on accessing and transforming core chronic painful emotions is central to all work in emotion-focused therapy (EFT), and this applies to EFT work with clients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) difficulties. The most important aspect of therapeutic work with any clients experiencing emotional suffering, including clients with GAD difficulties, is to address the core of their suffering, which consists of core problematic emotion schemes, eliciting chronic painful emotional experiences and dominant problematic self-organizations. This chapter illustrates the work at the level of the core pain on the basis of our observations of working with clients with GAD difficulties, particularly through the use of experiential tasks developed in EFT. The capability of the client to bring their most painful feelings to therapy sessions is a function of several factors. The hallmark of EFT work is the use of various experiential tasks. Empathic exploration, which is a default position for the EFT therapist, can also be conceptualized as a task.