Books / Humanistic, existential & experiential
Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings
In Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings, Leslie S. Greenberg describes emotion coaching and the role of emotional awareness and transformation in therapy. The book first appeared in 2002; this entry identifies the 2015 second edition.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Leslie S. Greenberg
Edition: 2nd edition (2015; first published 2002)
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Edition year: 2015
First published: 2002
Language and origin: English (Canada / United States)
Form and genre: Treatment Manual & Clinical Guide
Level: Intermediate
Historical era: 1980–2009 · Evidence-Based, Trauma & Integrative Era
Covers: You cannot leave a place until you have arrived at it; Changing emotion with emotion (transforming maladaptive shame/fear with adaptive anger, sadness, and self-compassion); Two phases of Emotion Coaching: Arriving (Awareness, Expression, Regulation) and Leaving (Reflection, Transformation, Corrective Experience); Marker-guided interventions: Two-Chair Dialogue for self-evaluative splits and Empty-Chair Work for unfinished business
APA 7th reference: Greenberg, L. S. (2015). Emotion-focused therapy: Coaching clients to work through their feelings (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
What it is & historical context
Greenberg describes emotion-focused therapy as an experiential approach that attends to emotional awareness, expression and change. The publisher’s introduction to the second edition describes the development of the approach and its application to different clinical populations.
Core clinical themes & arguments
The book presents emotion coaching in phases of arriving at and working with primary emotions, then accessing adaptive emotions and developing new meanings. These are features of the author’s clinical framework, not established explanations of the brain for every client.
Clinical practice, reception & legacy
The second edition discusses emotion-focused work in individual and couple therapy. A 2003 trial compared process-experiential therapy with cognitive-behavioural therapy for depression; its findings concern that study and should not be taken as a guarantee for an individual.
Reader level & educational scope
This intermediate entry is an educational orientation. The publisher’s introduction and the trial abstract were consulted; the full book and trial were not reviewed.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Comparing the Effectiveness of Process-Experiential With Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Depression (Jeanne C. Watson, Laurel B. Gordon, Lana Stermac, Freda Kalogerakos and Patricia Steckley, 2003)
Reference: Watson, J. C., Gordon, L. B., Stermac, L., Kalogerakos, F., & Steckley, P. (2003). Comparing the effectiveness of process-experiential with cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(4), 773–781.
In a randomised trial involving 66 clients, both groups improved on depression measures; the process-experiential group reported a greater reduction in interpersonal problems. These findings do not establish equivalent outcomes for every client.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: EFT’s core transformation principle ("changing emotion with emotion") posits that maladaptive primary emotions (such as core shame or fear) are transformed not by rational disputation alone, but by co-activating an opposing, adaptive primary emotion (such as empowering anger, grief, or compassion). (The author presents this as a principle of emotion-focused therapy. The full book was not reviewed for this entry.) [Source 1: Greenberg, L. S. (2015). Emotion-focused therapy: Coaching clients to work through their feelings (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. Introduction sample.]
Claim 2: In a 2003 randomised trial, both process-experiential therapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy groups improved on depression measures; the former group reported a greater reduction in interpersonal problems. (The trial abstract reports outcomes for 66 clients. It does not establish a general advantage in relapse prevention.) [Source 2: Watson, J. C., Gordon, L. B., Stermac, L., Kalogerakos, F., & Steckley, P. (2003). Comparing the effectiveness of process-experiential with cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(4), 773–781.]
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Publisher sample identifying the second edition and describing the author’s approach.
Supports: Abstract of a 2003 randomised comparison of process-experiential and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy for depression.