Leslie Greenberg - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Leslie Greenberg
Psychotherapy Research, 2012
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 2010
The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an emotion-focused couple therapy int... more The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an emotion-focused couple therapy intervention for resolving emotional injuries. Twenty couples acting as their own waitlist controls were offered a 10-12-session treatment to help resolve unresolved anger and hurt from a betrayal, an abandonment, or an identity insult that they had been unable to resolve for at least 2 years. Treated couples fared significantly better on all outcome measures over the treatment period compared to the waitlist period. They showed a significant improvement in dyadic satisfaction, trust, and forgiveness as well as improvement on symptom and target complaint measures. Changes were maintained on all of the measures at 3-month follow-up except trust, on which the injured partners deteriorated. At the end of treatment, 11 couples were identified as having completely forgiven their partners and six had made progress toward forgiveness compared with only three having made progress toward forgiveness over the waitlist period. The results suggest that EFT is effective in alleviating marital distress and promoting forgiveness in a brief period of time but that additional sessions may be needed to enhance enduring change. Many couples encounter life events with their partners in which they experience specific relational injuries that affect basic trust and result in feelings of anger and sadness that they are unable to resolve. Even years after the incident has passed, they still harbor bad feelings and no longer feel as connected to, or validated by, their partners. These relational injuries occur around the major sets of concerns on which couples, emotional bonds are formed-their attachment security and their identity validation (Greenberg & Goldman, 2008; Johnson, Makinen, & Millikin, 2001). When partners feel abandoned or invalidated, their trust in their partners' reliability and supportiveness is shattered, they feel betrayed, and this has a deleterious effect on the relationship bond and leaves partners with unresolved hurt and anger. This constitutes an emotional injury. Salient incidents such as a husband being nonattentive to a wife's needs during or after childbirth, a wife criticizing her husband's ability to provide for her in front of his family, one partner not accompanying the other to visit a dying parent, or one partner ignoring or disparaging a major success, when perceived as a loss or violation of some cherished aspect of a relationship with the other, result in emotional injury. An affair constitutes an even more major emotional injury, shattering trust and threatening the worth of the injured partner. Couples with emotional injuries such as these may appear similar to other distressed couples, in that they get caught in negative cycles of attack-blame and defend-withdraw. However, the defining feature of these couples is that the injured partner cannot forget the incident nor
Emotion-focused therapy for depression., 2006
ABSTRACT This chapter explains the role and nature of case formulation in emotion-focused therapy... more ABSTRACT This chapter explains the role and nature of case formulation in emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for depression. Case formulation is based on client processes, as opposed to the specific content of their narratives. Formulation is a complex process that continually seeks to integrate information from a number of different levels regarding the clients' immediate experience in the session. When treating clients for depression, therapists integrate the following levels of information about their functioning: (1) the manner in which they process their affective experience moment-by-moment in the session and regulate that affect, (2) their life histories and early attachment experiences, (3) the specific issues that they bring to each session, and (4) their moment-to-moment verbal and nonverbal behavior in the session. To facilitate understanding, it is important to explicate the tacit knowledge that directs therapists' attention and helps them to actively collaborate with their clients to ensure positive outcomes, even as they remain focused in the present and trusting of their clients' experiences. Agreement between therapist and client about the sources of distress and on ways of working with it is essential to the successful implementation of different tasks and the resolution of clients' feelings of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Process-Experiential/Emotion-Focused Therapy (PE-EFT; Elliott et al., 2004; Greenberg et al., 199... more Process-Experiential/Emotion-Focused Therapy (PE-EFT; Elliott et al., 2004; Greenberg et al., 1993) is an empirically-supported, neo-humanistic approach that integrates and updates Personcentered, Gestalt and existential therapies. In this article we first present what we see as PE-EFT's five essential features, namely neo-humanistic values, process-experiential emotion theory, person-centered but process-guiding relational stance, therapist exploratory response style, and marker-guided task strategy. Next, we summarize six treatment principles that guide therapists in carrying out this therapy: achieving empathic attunement, fostering an empathic, caring therapeutic bond, facilitating task collaboration, helping the client process experience appropriately to the task, supporting completion of key client tasks, and fostering client development and empowerment. In general PE-EFT is an approach that seeks to help clients transform contradictions and impasses into wellsprings for growth.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1984
There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion,... more There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion, which illuminates the role of affective processes in psychotherapy. In the present article, we employ a constructive model in which emotion is viewed as resulting from a synthesis of components. This emotional synthesis model is used to explore some of the ways in which "feefing" and "thinking" interact, both in clinical problems and in therapeutic change. It is suggested that many clinical problems involve a breakdown in the emotional synthesis process and that an important focus of therapy shouM be the integration of the different levels of processing involved in the construction of emotional experience. It is also argued that affect does not play a simple, uniform role in therapeutic change but instead should be viewed as operating in different ways in different change events. For this reason, it is important to begin delineating different mechanisms through which changes in emotional processing can bring about therapeutic change. To this end, three such mechanisms are proposed: the synthesis of adaptive emotional experience, de-automating dysfunctional emotional habits, and modifying state-dependent learning.
Anxiety disorders are characterized by high levels of anxiety and avoidance of anxiety inducing s... more Anxiety disorders are characterized by high levels of anxiety and avoidance of anxiety inducing situations and of negative emotions such as anger. Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy (PP) have underscored the therapeutic significance of processing and transforming repressed or disowned conflicted or painful emotions. Although PP provides sophisticated means of processing intra-psychic and interpersonal conflict, EFT has empirically tested a set of techniques to access, deepen, symbolize, and transform emotions consistent with current con-ceptualizations of emotions and memory. Based on our clinical experience, we propose that an integrative emotion-focused and psychodynamic approach opens new avenues for treating anxiety disorders effectively, and we present a transdiagnostic manual for emotion-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy. The therapeutic approach takes into account both the activation, processing, and modification of emotion and the underlying intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts. The short-term treatment is based on the three phases of initiating treatment, therapeutic work with anxiety, and termination. Emotional poignancy (or liveliness) is an important marker for emotional processing throughout treatment. Instead of exposure to avoided situations , we endorse enacting the internal process of generating anxiety in the session providing a sense of agency and access to warded-off emotions. Interpretation serves to tie together emotional experience and insight into the patterns and the nature of underlying intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict. Treatment modules are illustrated by brief vignettes from pilot treatments.
This is an interview, a conversation between Leslie Greenberg and Philip Brownell that took place... more This is an interview, a conversation between Leslie Greenberg and Philip Brownell that took place in 1996 as part of the first edition of the online journal Gestalt! (which is no longer available online but can be found as Chapter Two in Mistler, B. & Brownell, P (Eds.) (2015) Global perspectives on research, theory, and practice: A decade of Gestalt!. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1984
There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion,... more There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion, which illuminates the role of affective processes in psychotherapy. In the present article, we employ a constructive model in which emotion is viewed as resulting from a synthesis of components. This emotional synthesis model is used to explore some of the ways in which "feefing" and "thinking" interact, both in clinical problems and in therapeutic change. It is suggested that many clinical problems involve a breakdown in the emotional synthesis process and that an important focus of therapy shouM be the integration of the different levels of processing involved in the construction of emotional experience. It is also argued that affect does not play a simple, uniform role in therapeutic change but instead should be viewed as operating in different ways in different change events. For this reason, it is important to begin delineating different mechanisms through which changes in emotional processing can bring about therapeutic change. To this end, three such mechanisms are proposed: the synthesis of adaptive emotional experience, de-automating dysfunctional emotional habits, and modifying state-dependent learning.
Evidence-based practices in mental health: Debate and dialogue on the fundamental questions., 2006
Neuropsychoanalysis, 2005
present a well-reasoned analysis of research on brain mechanisms underlying conscious awareness o... more present a well-reasoned analysis of research on brain mechanisms underlying conscious awareness of emotion. There could hardly be a topic of greater centrality to psychoanalysis. They do an excellent job in conveying the exciting findings and methods of cognitive neuroscience to a broad community interested in understanding the neural basis for emotional awareness.
Journal of Family Psychology, 1988
ABSTRACT
Journal of Family Psychology, 1988
Page 1. Perceived Change Processes in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Leslie S. Greenberg Yor... more Page 1. Perceived Change Processes in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Leslie S. Greenberg York University Paul S. James Robert F. Conry University of British Columbia Reports from 21 couples of critical change incidents ...
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1988
... Canadian Journal of Behavior Science, 17, 16-28. Rennie, DL, Burke, HL, & Toukmanian, SG ... more ... Canadian Journal of Behavior Science, 17, 16-28. Rennie, DL, Burke, HL, & Toukmanian, SG (1978). ... In R. Levant & J. Shlien (Eds.), Client-centered therapy and the person centered approach: New directions in theory, research and practice (pp. 182-202). ...
Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2010
Psychotherapy Research, 2012
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 2010
The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an emotion-focused couple therapy int... more The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an emotion-focused couple therapy intervention for resolving emotional injuries. Twenty couples acting as their own waitlist controls were offered a 10-12-session treatment to help resolve unresolved anger and hurt from a betrayal, an abandonment, or an identity insult that they had been unable to resolve for at least 2 years. Treated couples fared significantly better on all outcome measures over the treatment period compared to the waitlist period. They showed a significant improvement in dyadic satisfaction, trust, and forgiveness as well as improvement on symptom and target complaint measures. Changes were maintained on all of the measures at 3-month follow-up except trust, on which the injured partners deteriorated. At the end of treatment, 11 couples were identified as having completely forgiven their partners and six had made progress toward forgiveness compared with only three having made progress toward forgiveness over the waitlist period. The results suggest that EFT is effective in alleviating marital distress and promoting forgiveness in a brief period of time but that additional sessions may be needed to enhance enduring change. Many couples encounter life events with their partners in which they experience specific relational injuries that affect basic trust and result in feelings of anger and sadness that they are unable to resolve. Even years after the incident has passed, they still harbor bad feelings and no longer feel as connected to, or validated by, their partners. These relational injuries occur around the major sets of concerns on which couples, emotional bonds are formed-their attachment security and their identity validation (Greenberg & Goldman, 2008; Johnson, Makinen, & Millikin, 2001). When partners feel abandoned or invalidated, their trust in their partners' reliability and supportiveness is shattered, they feel betrayed, and this has a deleterious effect on the relationship bond and leaves partners with unresolved hurt and anger. This constitutes an emotional injury. Salient incidents such as a husband being nonattentive to a wife's needs during or after childbirth, a wife criticizing her husband's ability to provide for her in front of his family, one partner not accompanying the other to visit a dying parent, or one partner ignoring or disparaging a major success, when perceived as a loss or violation of some cherished aspect of a relationship with the other, result in emotional injury. An affair constitutes an even more major emotional injury, shattering trust and threatening the worth of the injured partner. Couples with emotional injuries such as these may appear similar to other distressed couples, in that they get caught in negative cycles of attack-blame and defend-withdraw. However, the defining feature of these couples is that the injured partner cannot forget the incident nor
Emotion-focused therapy for depression., 2006
ABSTRACT This chapter explains the role and nature of case formulation in emotion-focused therapy... more ABSTRACT This chapter explains the role and nature of case formulation in emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for depression. Case formulation is based on client processes, as opposed to the specific content of their narratives. Formulation is a complex process that continually seeks to integrate information from a number of different levels regarding the clients' immediate experience in the session. When treating clients for depression, therapists integrate the following levels of information about their functioning: (1) the manner in which they process their affective experience moment-by-moment in the session and regulate that affect, (2) their life histories and early attachment experiences, (3) the specific issues that they bring to each session, and (4) their moment-to-moment verbal and nonverbal behavior in the session. To facilitate understanding, it is important to explicate the tacit knowledge that directs therapists' attention and helps them to actively collaborate with their clients to ensure positive outcomes, even as they remain focused in the present and trusting of their clients' experiences. Agreement between therapist and client about the sources of distress and on ways of working with it is essential to the successful implementation of different tasks and the resolution of clients' feelings of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Process-Experiential/Emotion-Focused Therapy (PE-EFT; Elliott et al., 2004; Greenberg et al., 199... more Process-Experiential/Emotion-Focused Therapy (PE-EFT; Elliott et al., 2004; Greenberg et al., 1993) is an empirically-supported, neo-humanistic approach that integrates and updates Personcentered, Gestalt and existential therapies. In this article we first present what we see as PE-EFT's five essential features, namely neo-humanistic values, process-experiential emotion theory, person-centered but process-guiding relational stance, therapist exploratory response style, and marker-guided task strategy. Next, we summarize six treatment principles that guide therapists in carrying out this therapy: achieving empathic attunement, fostering an empathic, caring therapeutic bond, facilitating task collaboration, helping the client process experience appropriately to the task, supporting completion of key client tasks, and fostering client development and empowerment. In general PE-EFT is an approach that seeks to help clients transform contradictions and impasses into wellsprings for growth.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1984
There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion,... more There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion, which illuminates the role of affective processes in psychotherapy. In the present article, we employ a constructive model in which emotion is viewed as resulting from a synthesis of components. This emotional synthesis model is used to explore some of the ways in which "feefing" and "thinking" interact, both in clinical problems and in therapeutic change. It is suggested that many clinical problems involve a breakdown in the emotional synthesis process and that an important focus of therapy shouM be the integration of the different levels of processing involved in the construction of emotional experience. It is also argued that affect does not play a simple, uniform role in therapeutic change but instead should be viewed as operating in different ways in different change events. For this reason, it is important to begin delineating different mechanisms through which changes in emotional processing can bring about therapeutic change. To this end, three such mechanisms are proposed: the synthesis of adaptive emotional experience, de-automating dysfunctional emotional habits, and modifying state-dependent learning.
Anxiety disorders are characterized by high levels of anxiety and avoidance of anxiety inducing s... more Anxiety disorders are characterized by high levels of anxiety and avoidance of anxiety inducing situations and of negative emotions such as anger. Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy (PP) have underscored the therapeutic significance of processing and transforming repressed or disowned conflicted or painful emotions. Although PP provides sophisticated means of processing intra-psychic and interpersonal conflict, EFT has empirically tested a set of techniques to access, deepen, symbolize, and transform emotions consistent with current con-ceptualizations of emotions and memory. Based on our clinical experience, we propose that an integrative emotion-focused and psychodynamic approach opens new avenues for treating anxiety disorders effectively, and we present a transdiagnostic manual for emotion-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy. The therapeutic approach takes into account both the activation, processing, and modification of emotion and the underlying intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts. The short-term treatment is based on the three phases of initiating treatment, therapeutic work with anxiety, and termination. Emotional poignancy (or liveliness) is an important marker for emotional processing throughout treatment. Instead of exposure to avoided situations , we endorse enacting the internal process of generating anxiety in the session providing a sense of agency and access to warded-off emotions. Interpretation serves to tie together emotional experience and insight into the patterns and the nature of underlying intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict. Treatment modules are illustrated by brief vignettes from pilot treatments.
This is an interview, a conversation between Leslie Greenberg and Philip Brownell that took place... more This is an interview, a conversation between Leslie Greenberg and Philip Brownell that took place in 1996 as part of the first edition of the online journal Gestalt! (which is no longer available online but can be found as Chapter Two in Mistler, B. & Brownell, P (Eds.) (2015) Global perspectives on research, theory, and practice: A decade of Gestalt!. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1984
There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion,... more There is a growing recognition among clinicians of the need for a comprehensive model of emotion, which illuminates the role of affective processes in psychotherapy. In the present article, we employ a constructive model in which emotion is viewed as resulting from a synthesis of components. This emotional synthesis model is used to explore some of the ways in which "feefing" and "thinking" interact, both in clinical problems and in therapeutic change. It is suggested that many clinical problems involve a breakdown in the emotional synthesis process and that an important focus of therapy shouM be the integration of the different levels of processing involved in the construction of emotional experience. It is also argued that affect does not play a simple, uniform role in therapeutic change but instead should be viewed as operating in different ways in different change events. For this reason, it is important to begin delineating different mechanisms through which changes in emotional processing can bring about therapeutic change. To this end, three such mechanisms are proposed: the synthesis of adaptive emotional experience, de-automating dysfunctional emotional habits, and modifying state-dependent learning.
Evidence-based practices in mental health: Debate and dialogue on the fundamental questions., 2006
Neuropsychoanalysis, 2005
present a well-reasoned analysis of research on brain mechanisms underlying conscious awareness o... more present a well-reasoned analysis of research on brain mechanisms underlying conscious awareness of emotion. There could hardly be a topic of greater centrality to psychoanalysis. They do an excellent job in conveying the exciting findings and methods of cognitive neuroscience to a broad community interested in understanding the neural basis for emotional awareness.
Journal of Family Psychology, 1988
ABSTRACT
Journal of Family Psychology, 1988
Page 1. Perceived Change Processes in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Leslie S. Greenberg Yor... more Page 1. Perceived Change Processes in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Leslie S. Greenberg York University Paul S. James Robert F. Conry University of British Columbia Reports from 21 couples of critical change incidents ...
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1988
... Canadian Journal of Behavior Science, 17, 16-28. Rennie, DL, Burke, HL, & Toukmanian, SG ... more ... Canadian Journal of Behavior Science, 17, 16-28. Rennie, DL, Burke, HL, & Toukmanian, SG (1978). ... In R. Levant & J. Shlien (Eds.), Client-centered therapy and the person centered approach: New directions in theory, research and practice (pp. 182-202). ...
Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2010