Helping our patients process and deal with the difficult “emotional soup”

In counseling, we often see folks who struggle a lot with the difficult “emotional soup” that they desperately trying to escape or process. It’s often is a mixture of shame, not good enough, disconnection, non belonging, fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, frustration, procrastination, doubt, and a few other really uncomfortable feelings. Sometimes it’s hard to pin point the exact feelings, but worthlessness and hopelessness can be a good summary of that.

At times, the more one focuses on it, the more one gets sucked into that “emotional vortex”. Fusion with those feelings is a risk.

For most, the antidote is not about fixing something in the external. Often it’s the internal.

What’s often required is a combination of defusion, self as context rather than a more rigid sense of self, belonging and most importantly, unconditional self compassion and acceptance. At times, it’s also about self forgiveness.

Having said that, it’s extremely difficult for most folks to “unlock” or unpack that, but the answers often lie on the other side of that locked door.

It’s not too far away.