1. Session 7: Advanced Emotion Regulation Skills
Humber
Recovery College
Humber
Recovery College
Coping with Emotions
Session 7: Advanced Emotion Regulation Skills

2. Aims of Today’s Session
By the end of this session you will have:
Experienced using emotion exposure to practice feeling frequent and difficult emotions
An understanding how to use opposite action
Considered new ways to solve problems using behaviour analysis and the ABC problem solving
Revisited ideas around how we can reduce our vulnerability to intense emotions
Aims of Today’s Session

3. Facing emotions instead of avoiding is a major goal of DBT
Emotion exposure helps you develop the capacity to accept feelings and feel less afraid of them
Step 1 is keeping a log of emotions that have come up over the course of the week
Think about strong emotions you have experienced this week. What events precipitated these emotions?
Also think about what coping or blocking responses you used
Emotion Exposure

4. Lets give it a go with some emotions you have felt in the last week
Emotion Log

5. Emotion Log Look back over your emotion log and notice two things:
Identify emotions that seem chronic –they show up over and over again
Notice what coping or blocking mechanism you typically use and their outcome
Emotions that show up repeatedly or have blocking strategies that create more pain than relief will be good targets for emotion exposure
Facing those that don’t work and often get you into more trouble
Because you need to practice facing and feeling them, without your usual methods of avoidance
Emotion Log

6. Emotion Exposure Mindfulness Procedure

7. What can we learn from Adam’s story?
Let’s look at the example of Adam and how it helped him (p167)
It is important not to fight the feelings you have – just watch them, observe as they swell and then recede like an ocean wave
Give yourself the right to feel the way you feel
Notice judgments, then practice letting them go
Use mindful breathing to help yourself remain calm in the midst of a wave of overwhelming emotions
What can we learn from Adam’s story?

8. Opposite Action Emotion Emotion-Driven Behaviour Opposite Action Anger
Attack, criticise, hurt, shout
Validate, avoid or distract, use soft voice
Fear
Avoid, hunch shoulders
Approach what you fear, do what you’ve been avoiding, stand tall
Sadness
Shut down, avoid, be passive, slump, hang your head
Be active, get involved, set goals, stand straight
Guilt/shame
Punish yourself, confess, avoid, shut down
If unfounded guilt, continue doing whatever is triggering guilt; if guilt is justified, atone and make amends

9. Six Steps to Creating Opposite Action
Acknowledge what you feel; describe the emotion in words
Ask yourself if there is a good reason to regulate or reduce the intensity of the emotion – is it overpowering you? Does it drive you to do destructive things?
Notice the body language and behaviour that accompanies the emotion – what is your facial expression and posture? What are you saying and how are you saying it?
Identify the opposite action - How can you change your facial expression or posture to convey confidence rather than depression? How can you move toward, not away from, the thing that scares you?
Fully commit to opposite action and set a time frame to work at it
Monitor your emotions – as you do the opposite action, notice how the original emotion may change or evolve. Opposite action literally sends a message to the brain that the old emotion is no longer appropriate – and it helps you shift past painful emotions
Six Steps to Creating Opposite Action

10. Planning ahead to use Opposite Actions
Identify some ‘frequent flyer’ emotions and commit to opposite-action strategies that can help you with regulation
In this exercise, you will identify emotions that you expect to feel in the future and prepare a radically different response than you have had in the past
Let’s have a look at the example of Linda (p. 170)…
Planning ahead to use Opposite Actions

11. Emotion
Emotion-Driven Behaviour
Opposite Action
Time Period
Outcomes
Feeling angry and rejected
Withdrawing
Attacking
Little revenges
Say what hurt me in a soft, non-attacking voice. Be civil; end the conversation quickly. Do something for myself rather than planning revenge.
As long as the conversation lasts
My conversations were calmer, they didn’t escalate into fights. I expressed how I felt in a civil way.
Guilt
Being “phony nice”
Attaching
Apologise straight up, but let people know I don’t like how I was treated.
People appreciated my honesty. I expressed how I felt in an honest way.

12. A Final Word on Opposite-Action
Now have a go at completing your own plan for using Opposite-Action…
“Opposite action isn’t easy, we won’t pretend it is. But it does quickly dull the razor edge of overwhelming emotions. Fear often turns into empowerment, sadness to engagement, anger to detachment, and shame and avoidance to willingness. Planning opposite-action strategies can give you an incredibly effective tool for emotion regulation.”
A Final Word on Opposite-Action

14. Sometimes emotion regulation has to start before the overwhelming emotions begin
Problem solving focuses on the triggering event and finds new, more effective ways to respond
Behaviour Analysis
We begin problem solving using behaviour analysis. This involves tracing the sequence of events that led up to a problematic emotion
Let’s use the ‘Behaviour Analysis Worksheet’ to work step-by-step through the process
This will help you see how emotions are built: something always triggers them
Sometimes the trigger is internal, like thoughts or feelings, and sometimes there are multiple causes, all of which need to be recognised and traced
Problem Solving

15. Behaviour Analysis Example
Problematic Emotion: Rage at mother-in-law
Precipitating Event
External event: Mother-in-law visits. She looks disgusted when she sees my house
Thoughts: House needs a paint. Yard is full of weeds. Place is a dump
Secondary Events
Emotion: Sadness
Thought: I hate this place
Emotion: Shame
Thought: Why do I spend my life in dumps like this? Why can’t I do better than this? I know why, because I’m a loser who can’t make any money
Behaviour: Accused my mother-in-law of not helping when we needed it, not caring about our problems. She disagreed and I then blew up at her
Behaviour Analysis Example

16. Behaviour Analysis: Now have a go at your own

17. The next step towards problem solving is using the ABC Strategy
Alternatives: Brainstorm alternative responses
Best ideas: Evaluate your list and choose one or two of your best ideas to implement
Commitment to implementation: Identify the time and place you’ll try to use your new responses. Write out the new thoughts and behaviour you’ll use.
Have a go at completing the sheet ‘ABC Problem Solving’
ABC Problem Solving

18. Emotion Regulation: Putting it all together
In order to be successful in regulating your emotions, you need to:
Regulate physical vulnerability
Regulate cognitive vulnerability
Watch and accept emotions
Cope with emotions
We discussed in earlier sessions some of things that make us more vulnerable to intense emotions.
The homework sheet this week helps you keep of yourself in managing those behaviours to reduce your vulnerability
Emotion Regulation: Putting it all together

19. Emotion Regulation: Putting it all together
These are the things we discussed earlier in the course that you are now encouraged to start monitoring.
Reduce physical vulnerability by:
Taking proactive steps to deal with pain or illness
Commit to balanced eating
Not using alcohol or drugs
Getting enough sleep (See the attached sleep hygiene advice sheet)
Exercising
Using mindfulness
Emotion Regulation: Putting it all together

20. Emotion Regulation: Putting it all together
These are the things we discussed earlier in the course that you are now encouraged to start monitoring
Reduce cognitive vulnerability by:
Observing trigger thoughts
Using coping thoughts
Noticing positive events
Watch & accept emotions by:
Watching your emotions
Not acting on emotions
Trying not to judge emotions
Emotion Regulation: Putting it all together

21. Homework: Weekly Regulator
And finally, use the skills we have learnt this week to cope with emotions by:
Using opposite action
Using behaviour analysis
Using ABC Problem solving
Emotion regulation is best achieved when you employ your new skills on a regular basis
This week’s homework, the Regulator Log Sheet, is a reminder system to help you do just that.
The Weekly Regulator Sheet is best done a number of times, on a Sunday night
Homework: Weekly Regulator

22. Course Overview Date Session 4th October
Introductory Session – Psychology & DBT Approach
11th October
Basic Distress Tolerance Skills
18th October
Advanced Distress Tolerance Skills
25th October
Basic Mindfulness Skills
1st November
BREAK WEEK – NO SESSION
8th November
Advanced Mindfulness Skills
15th November
Basic Emotional Regulation Skills
22rd November
Advanced Emotion Regulation Skills
29th November
Basic Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
6th December
Advanced Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
13th December
Putting it All Together

23. Well Done! You’ve completed Session 7! Next session:
Humber
Recovery College
Well Done! You’ve completed Session 7! Next session:
Session 8: Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills