Countering Avoidant Behaviors

Abstract

The key concept for this session is emotion avoidance, which means any strategies we use to avoid feeling strong emotions or to prevent our emotions from becoming more intense. Although these responses may be useful in some situations, they rarely work well in the long term, and they can increase the intensity of our emotions when we encounter a similar situation in the future. During this session, clients learn how suppression of thoughts and emotions can be counterproductive. Clients are taught to identify three types of avoidance, which are behavioral avoidance (obvious and subtle), cognitive avoidance, and safety signals.