Facilitating Emotional Change: The Moment-by-Moment Process
Also known as Facilitating Emotional Change, Facilitating Emotional Change (1993), Facilitating Emotional Change (Greenberg, Rice and Elliott, 1993)
The 1993 manual that founded process-experiential therapy, now emotion-focused therapy
At a glance
What it argues
Emotions organize, they do not just disrupt, Work moment by moment, A theory of functioning
See all 3The six tasks
Systematic evocative unfolding, Experiential focusing, Two-chair dialogue …
See all 6Examples from the book
Transcripts
Influence
The basis of individual EFT, Ten years on
See all 2Read next
Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings, Empty chair technique
See all 3Connections
Leslie Greenberg, Laura N. Rice and 5 others
See all 7
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- The founding manual of process-experiential therapy, which later became emotion-focused therapy.
- It argues that emotions are not a problem to control but organizing processes that help people adapt and solve problems.
- It builds a theory of how emotion, thinking and change fit together.
- Its manual gives step-by-step directions for six therapeutic tasks, each triggered by a marker in what the client says.
Why it matters
- For therapists and students who want the source of the chair work and the task-based method.
- Beginners may prefer Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy (2004), a more streamlined introduction by the same group.
Key facts
- Authors
- Leslie S. Greenberg, Laura N. Rice, Robert Elliott1
- Published
- 1993 (copyright); paperback 19961
- Publisher
- Guilford Press1
- Pages
- 3461
- ISBN
- 9781572302013 (paperback)1
- Audience
- Courses on psychotherapy in clinical and counseling psychology, psychiatry and social work1
- Built on
- The experiential therapies of Carl Rogers and Fritz Perls, and Eugene Gendlin2
What it argues
-
Emotions organize, they do not just disrupt1
Against the idea of being 'too emotional', it shows emotions as organizing processes that aid adaptation and problem solving.
-
Work moment by moment1
Change happens by tracking emotional processes moment by moment within an experiential framework.
-
A theory of functioning1
Its theory part links emotion, cognition and change into an experiential theory of human functioning.
The six tasks
-
Systematic evocative unfolding1
At a problematic reaction point: when a client's own reaction puzzles them.
-
Experiential focusing1
For an unclear felt sense.
-
Two-chair dialogue1
At a self-evaluative split, when one part of the self criticizes another.
-
Two-chair enactment1
For a self-interruption split, when the client blocks their own feelings.
-
Empty-chair work1
For unfinished business with a significant other.
-
Empathic affirmation1
At a marker of intense vulnerability.
Examples from the book
-
Transcripts1
Excerpts from real session transcripts show each method, for both client and therapist.
Influence
-
The basis of individual EFT2
Wikipedia names it the treatment manual, building on Rogers, Perls and Gendlin, that set out the process-experiential approach.
-
Ten years on3
By 2004 the theory was better articulated, the treatment was used for PTSD and borderline processes, and new tasks had been added to the original six.
Read next
-
Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy
The authors' more approachable follow-up, with newer tasks.
-
Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings
Greenberg's practical guide for a wider audience.
-
One of the book's tasks, on its own page.
Connections
Written by
- Leslie GreenbergPerson
- Laura N. Rice
- Robert ElliottPerson
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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