This article reviews the process and outcome research on emotion in psychotherapy. Four distinct types of emotion processes are identified in the literature as useful in therapy, depending on a client's presenting concerns: emotional awareness and arousal; emotional regulation, active reflection on emotion (meaning making), and emotional transformation. Research findings are summarized to highlight the practical implications of these different emotion processes to psychotherapy. A range of selected treatments from different therapeutic orientations are addressed collectively as different types of emotion-focused, experiential therapies and are compared on the basis of how they work with emotion in session.
(c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 62: 611-630, 2006.