Emotional processing strategies in cognitive behavioral therapy

With the growing interest of cognitive behaviour therapy in early developed psychopathology like personality disorders there is an increased need for therapeutic methods for more directly treating traumatic emotions connecting with the pathogenic schemas. Affects and emotions have been increasingly brought to the prominence in cognitive behavioral theory and practice. Research also suggests that distorted images of the self are common in people traumatized in chilhood who developer psychiatric disorder and play a role in maintaining this disorder. The images are often linked in thematic and sensory detail to emotionally distressing memories that are clustered around the onset or worsening of the disorder. Several cognitive and behavioral approaches have begun to emphasize emotional phenomena connected with traumatic memories. Experiential methods seem to be the most effective. Emotional processing methods appear to be a valuable adjunct to conventional CBT in working with cases where there is an early history of trauma or distress. This article discusses five forms of these methods: (i) imagery with rescripting; (ii) role playing; (iii) therapeutic letters; (iv) imagery rehearsal therapy; and (v) elaborating of catastrophic scenario.