Transforming Emotion: Conversations in Counselling and Psychotherapy

"An invitation to therapists and counsellors to explore and collaboratively transform rather than colonise other people's emotions, this book is based on the premise that therapists don't know best about other people's emotions. Glenda Fredman describes two contrasting approaches to working with emotion: autonomous and relational. In the familiar autonomous practices, emotion is located within the individual, and the therapist's task is to name feelings, and encourage their safe discharge. In a relational approach, rather than knowing what clients need to feel, we are encouraged to explore with them the ways their displays of emotion impact on others, and what the feelings might suggest about their identity, values and preferred ways of living.

Fredman includes accounts of emotion from different cultures - including the various schools of therapy - and suggests that we will have implicit rules for dealing with emotion depending on what we have learnt. She maintains that by remaining curious about the meanings of emotion words and displays, rather than imposing an expert view, we can co-create new and more helpful stories that fit into the context of clients' lives.

Her case vignettes bring the book to life. I was particularly moved by the story of a child in hospital who was refusing to co-operate with a painful but necessary procedure. Putting into practice her collaborative approach, before long Fredman has Gregory, a football fanatic, acting as captain of his team, allocating nurses to particular steps in the procedure. Gregory and the staff take up and develop the theme over the next few days, selling off un-needed team members, and buying in a play specialist; the ward takes on a different atmosphere, where patients and staff are playfully working together rather than trying to impose things on each other.

Other stories are drawn from her work in therapy with adults, and supervision of other therapists. In each we can see the relational approach she recommends encouraging the author to be respectful, and to work with her clients to co-create (rather than discover) new stories and connections.

As a systemic therapist, I enjoyed reading this book. It brings together ideas from social constructionism, narrative therapy and mainstream psychology, and shows how we can use even conflicting accounts as possible resources rather than absolute truths. I would recommend it for therapists, counsellors and anyone interested in doing emotion-talk differently."
~ Written on 2004-02-09