PRINCIPLES OF EMOTION CHANGE: WHAT WORKS AND WHEN IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Difficulty working with emotion is one of the most common clinical challenges across modalities.

This practical, science-informed workshop offers an effective framework for working with client emotion across therapeutic approaches. While many therapies emphasize the importance of processing emotions, few explain what that actually looks like in practice or how to know whether emotional work is leading to meaningful therapeutic change.

In this workshop, Dr. Antonio Pascual-Leone will introduce five pathways for helping clients process emotion in ways that support change. Based on the latest empirical evidence and grounded in decades of clinical research and practice, this framework clarifies how to identify what is happening emotionally in-session and respond in ways that move the emotional process forward.

This training is designed for therapists who already work with emotion and want to refine their approach to be more deliberate, nuanced, and effective. You will learn how to identify different types of emotional responses, recognize when a client is emotionally stuck, and apply targeted interventions based on what the client needs emotionally in that moment.

Through clinical demonstrations, real therapy videos, and brief experiential exercises, you will learn practical tools that can be integrated into your existing approach, whether you are a student, early-career clinician, or experienced psychotherapist.

This workshop is based on a recent book by Dr. Pascual-Leone on “Emotion Change,” which Dr. Leslie Greenberg (York University, Canada) has called: „visionary” and “a must-read for clinicians of all orientations.” Similarly, Dr. Louie Castonguay (Pennsylvania State University, United States) has called it, „an integrative masterpiece.” While Dr. Robert Elliott (University of Strathclyde, Scotland) refers to the contribution as a “rigorous… tour de force.” Finally, Dr. J. C. Muran (Adelphi University, United States) states the book a reference that “will help a new generation of therapists.