Emotion-Focused Therapy in Brampton

This distinction is the heart of it, and most people recognize themselves in it immediately.

Secondary emotions are the ones that show. Often anger, often anxiety. They are reactions to something underneath.

Primary emotions are what is actually there. Hurt. Fear. Shame. Loneliness. Grief.

Someone who becomes furious when a partner is late may, underneath, be frightened of not mattering. Anger is easier to have than that. It feels stronger, and it does not expose anything.

Working only with the anger produces limited results, because the anger was never the point. EFT works toward the primary emotion, where change becomes possible.

Some emotions are also learned responses rather than direct ones. A person who was shamed for crying may produce anger instead, reliably, for decades.

Sessions tend to slow down at emotionally significant moments rather than moving past them.

A therapist may direct attention to what is happening as you speak. Where the feeling sits in your body. What comes up when you stay with it a little longer. What it would say if it could speak.

Chair work is sometimes used, particularly for self-criticism. You might voice the critical part of yourself directly, then respond from the part that receives it. People often discover the critic sounds like someone specific, and hearing it out loud changes its authority considerably.

Between-session work is less central than in CBT. The change happens largely in the room.