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When you hear the term chronic pain, thoughts of physical symptoms likely come to mind. However, chronic pain also has a psychological component that can create internal conflict and exacerbate those physical symptoms. Emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET), developed in the early 2000s, aims to help individuals reduce pain and improve overall well-being by resolving unprocessed trauma or psychological conflict.
This article delves into the core principles, techniques, and benefits of EAET. It also offers tips on finding an EAET therapist aligning with your needs.
What Is Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy?
EAET is an evidence-based psychological therapy that targets unresolved trauma or emotional conflict to reduce pain symptoms. It’s considered a preferred treatment method for individuals with primary pain conditions. Unlike secondary pain, which stems from an underlying medical condition, primary pain results from an injury or the onset of a disease. Common primary pain conditions include:
- Fibromyalgia
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Head or back pain
- Chronic pelvic pain
- Musculoskeletal pain
According to the National Institutes of Health, chronic pain affects roughly 21% of U.S. adults. Many people who reported experiencing chronic pain still suffered from their condition a year later, emphasizing the importance of quality treatment to reduce troublesome symptoms. With EAET, individuals can learn how to process the thoughts and emotions surrounding their pain, especially ones they’ve suppressed or avoided, to improve their physical condition.
Core Principles and Techniques of EAET Therapy
Ultimately, EAET strives to help people identify their emotions and learn how to express them. It follows the belief that unaddressed emotional experiences can impact various psychological and physical health problems. Along with chronic pain conditions, EAET can also treat anxiety, depression, trauma, and stress-related disorders. Core principles of awareness therapy include:
- Recognizing the brain as the source of pain. The main focus of EAET is helping individuals understand how their brain generates and amplifies pain. The brain is shaped by traumatic experiences, such as abuse, neglect, or painful injuries. Thinking about these experiences often evokes strong emotions, triggering feelings of pain.
- Confronting emotions. By encouraging people to confront these traumatic experiences, EAET helps them become aware of associated emotions, including anger, frustration, or sadness. A therapist may ask the individual to identify physical sensations, thoughts, or feelings linked to each emotion.
- Learning how to express emotions. After identifying their emotions and the experiences that caused them, individuals learn how to express these emotions in a healthy, constructive manner. This can involve talking through them or performing creative activities, such as writing or drawing.
- Planning for daily life. EAET also prepares individuals to recognize their emotions in daily life. A therapist may suggest role-playing realistic scenarios to practice emotional awareness and expression, helping their patient improve interpersonal relationships, emotional regulation, communication, and overall well-being.
Benefits of EAET for Emotional Health
EAET focuses on helping you identify and process emotion, establish healthy methods of expression, and understand emotional responses and triggers. These skills benefit several aspects of emotional health, including:
- Emotional regulation. Learning how to identify, process, and express feelings can enhance emotional regulation, reducing their impact on your daily life.
- Stress reduction. Unresolved trauma or psychological conflict can enhance feelings of stress and anxiety. Learning how to process and express this internal conflict can reduce overall stress levels, improving emotional stability and resiliency.
- Self-acceptance. By encouraging emotional exploration, EAET can help foster feelings of validation and self-acceptance. This allows you to build greater compassion for your thoughts and feelings, resulting in improved mental health and healthier coping methods.
- Ability to cope. During EAET sessions, a therapist introduces tools and techniques for managing difficult emotions. These can help you build better-coping mechanisms to integrate into real life.
- Communication and relationships. EAET encourages healthier emotional communication and understanding, which can improve interpersonal relationships. Skills gained during therapy can help you foster more meaningful, supportive connections with others, increasing the quality of your relationships.
EAET for Chronic Pain and Trauma
Improving emotional health through EAET can influence how you manage and respond to chronic pain or trauma. For example, unexpressed emotions, including anger, sadness, or fear, can manifest as physical pain. EAET helps you identify which emotions or thoughts trigger feelings of pain, creating a link between your mind and body.
Additionally, the American Psychological Association reports more than half of Americans with chronic pain experience feelings of depression or anxiety. These mental health symptoms, paired with the emotions linked to your condition, can further exacerbate your brain’s perception of pain. Learning how to process and express these feelings can alleviate their emotional burden, decreasing the intensity and frequency of pain.
EAET works similarly with trauma. Trauma therapy involves revisiting a distressing event to identify and process associated emotions, such as fear, guilt, anger, or sadness. Facing the traumatic memory and these emotions can alleviate additional psychological and physical symptoms they trigger. This reduces the power trauma holds over your life, allowing you to move forward and heal.
How to Find an EAET Therapist
Because EAET is still relatively new, not every mental health professional is familiar with its techniques. One way to locate an EAET therapist is through online directories. These allow you to filter therapists by specialty for easy navigation.
Consider asking a primary care physician, psychiatrist, or other health care provider if they know of any therapists specializing in EAET. They can offer referrals and help set up an appointment. During your initial consultation with a therapist, ask about their experience with EAET and any relevant training or qualifications.
It’s also helpful to ask about their experience with your specific condition, whether it’s chronic pain or trauma. This ensures they have the appropriate knowledge and resources to accommodate your needs.
Reach Out for Help
Living with unresolved trauma or psychological conflict can take a toll on your physical and mental health. Whether you’re struggling with chronic pain, trauma, or a mental health disorder, EAET can help you process and seek relief from troubling thoughts and emotions.
At FHE Health, we offer mental health services for a wide range of conditions, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Our compassionate counselors can connect you with a treatment option aligning with your needs. Contact us today to see how we can help.
